Cruz: I'm fine with contested convention

The Hill ^ | 03-09-2016 | Jesse Byrnes

[AuH2ORepublican]

I am saying that Romney is less liberal than Trump on most issues. And I am saying that just as I did not support Romney in 2012 (when, you’re right, when practically no one in this forum supported him) or in 2008 (when lots of FReepers were fooled into supporting him, and when Trump mouthpiece Ann Coulter was Romney’s biggest fan), I do not support a liberal like Trump today. And, most importantly, I am saying that just as I would have fought for Rick Santorum had Romney entered the 2012 Convention with less than a majority of delegates, I would fight for Ted Cruz if Trump enters the Convention with less than a majority of delegates. It takes a MAJORITY to win the nomination, and until that is achieved the contest is not over. To say that conservatives should roll over and play dead if a liberal such as Donald Trump has a mere *plurality* of delegates entering the Convention is defeatist, undemocratic and stupid.

If enough RINOs, pissed-off (but still liberal) Democrats, low-information voters attracted by celebrity status, and bamboozled conservatives vote for Trump in the primaries that he is able to win a majority of delegates (because the 65% anti-Trump Republican primary vote is split among other candidates), then Trump will be the GOP nominee. If he doesn’t have a majority, then he would need delegates elected to back other candidates to switch to vote for him. Trump would be exactly in the same position as Cruz, except that (I) Trump presumably would need fewer delegates from other candidates to switch to him and (ii) Cruz, being a true conservative and not a liberal Democrat pretending top be a Republican, would be far likelier to be the second choice for other delegates. With no one getting a majority of delegates, the nomination would be decided at the Convention, as the rules dictate. Whining about how Trump got a whopping 35% of the popular vote and 45% of delegates and thus should win automatically is the kind of thing that Democrats would do.

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

Everyone could smell Romney’s phoniness a mile a way.

But okay, I’ll try to acknowledge that you are so terrified of Trump that you are willing to destroy the republican party with a convention fight.

[AuH2ORepublican]

If no one goes into the Convention with a majority of delegates, then, by definition, it will be a brokered convention, and candidates would need to seek delegates pledged to other candidates. Your position is that only one candidate with less thana majority of delegates should be allowed to seek support from other delegates, and anyone else that does it would be “destroying the party.” I would disagree with your position even if your preferred candidate wasn’t a liberal Democrat pretending to be a Republican.