Republican campaigns are angling behind the scenes for potential delegates and brushing up on rules for a contested national convention should the first ballot cast in Cleveland later this year fail to produce a clear presidential election nominee.
"This is going to be a convention like I've never seen in my lifetime," operative Barry Bennett, who had managed Ben Carson's campaign until December and is now advising Trump told
Politico.
"It's going to be contentious from day one."
The current series of primaries and caucuses will decide which candidate gets the most delegates on the first ballot. But, if that ballot does not produce a nominee, then a parallel primary could kick in, culminating a complicated process that is made even more difficult as every state party has its own rules concerning delegate conventions.
Most of the candidates aren't yet commenting on the possibility.
However, one Southern state party chairman said calls from campaigns seeking data on eligible candidates began in 2015, and he suspects there are super PACs behind the requests.
According to current rules, candidates must win a majority of delegates in eight states or territories to be eligible for the nomination and have 1,237 delegates, or a majority, to win it.
As an outsider, Trump could find himself at a disadvantage in a brokered campaign, the Southern state party chairman said, and he has not seen much evidence that Trump is courting 150 national committee members and state chairs who will be automatic delegates and lead their state delegations in a floor fight.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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