What If No GOP Candidate Wins Enough Delegates?
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DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz continue to debate what would happen if neither man can win enough primary elections and caucuses to clinch the 1,237 delegates which are needed to become the GOP nominee.
"None of the candidates will probably have 1,237 votes," said noted political commentator Michael Barone.
Barone spoke in Dallas on Wednesday, and said that he expects to see Trump and Cruz instead having to fight for delegates at the convention in Cleveland in order to secure the nomination. "I think the likeliest result of the Republican convention is Ted Cruz nominated on the second ballot," Barone said.
Under the party's rules, after each state's delegates vote for the first time during the convention, many of them are free to vote for someone else on a second ballot. Experts believe that Cruz's campaign has been aggressively seeking delegates who would switch their votes at the convention, so that he could then become the nominee.
"These systems have been in existence for a long time," the political commentator said. "They've been changed and modified, but those rules have been transparent to any campaign that's organized and wants to find out about them."
Trump supporter Randy Powell, however, believes that the GOP and Cruz are trying to snatch away the Donald's votes. "He's playing ball with the RNC and they're playing ball with him to get rid of Trump. That's what's going on," Powell said. "People believe their votes count. They're finding out now they really don't, because of the way the process is."
Cruz supporter Ken Emmanuelson blames Trump for this situation, saying that it is his fault for not actually knowing how the nomination process works. "Unfortunately, I think he's causing a lot of trouble, because he's telling people they're rigging the game, they're cheating," Emmanuelson said. "He doesn't even know if that's true or not. It's irresponsible of him."
But with 769 delegates still up for grabs, both Trump and Cruz have some time to win enough votes before the convention.
