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Political parties, not voters, choose their presidential nominees, a Republican convention rules member told CNBC, a day after GOP front-runner Donald Trump rolled up more big primary victories. "The media has created the perception that the voters choose the nomination. That's the conflict here," Curly Haugland, an unbound GOP delegate from North Dakota, told CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Wednesday. He even questioned why primaries and caucuses are held. Haugland is one of 112 Republican delegates who are not required to cast their support for any one candidate because their states and territories don't hold primaries or caucuses. Even with Trump's...

House Speaker Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) suggested Tuesday night that he could reach for the Republican presidential nomination during a contested convention in Cleveland.

Republican National Committeeman Curly Haugland of North Dakota sent a letter on Friday to fellow RNC officials arguing that current party rules allow 2016 Republican National Convention delegates to vote for the presidential candidate of their personal preference during the first round of voting, rather than voting along with the will of voters in their states. Haughland wrote in a letter published by The Daily Caller that the party’s Rule 38, also called “Unit Rule,” specifically allows Republican convention delegates to vote their conscience in every vote at the convention. “Every delegate to the 2016 Republican National Convention is a...

Ted Cruz says he would have no problem with a contested convention over the summer in the event neither he nor Donald Trump secures enough delegates before then to lock up the Republican presidential nomination. Trump suggested Wednesday morning on "Fox and Friends" that Cruz was making the statement "because he had such a bad night last night."

The two leading GOP campaigns intend to muscle the Ohio governor out of the race. Advisers to Donald Trump and Ted Cruz say there's no way they'll allow John Kasich to even compete at a contested national convention -- let alone prevail. Trump and Cruz are betting that their dual dominance in the delegate hunt will permanently box out the Ohio governor, who has no mathematical path to the nomination and is openly pursuing a floor fight at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland. And their aides say Kasich won't even make it to the floor. "There is virtually zero...

RUSH: Again, if you're just joining us here, it is apparent, well, it's not apparent. It's abundantly clear that the Republican establishment, all these reports we've had prior to today about them being in panic have not even gotten close to reality. The panic is real today. They are acting as though their own very future is at stake today. And they have decided that the future of the Republican Party, as you know it and love it, hangs on what happens in Ohio. Meaning John Kasich, in their view, had better win this thing. Now, keep in mind...

A Republican National Committee Standing Rules Committee member told the membership Friday that convention delegates are not bound to cast their votes at the convention according to primary vote results in the first round of voting. Curly Haugland of North Dakota, a long time member of the RNC Standing Rules Committee, sent a letter to the RNC membership at large about this issue. He explained how he came to the conclusion that all Republican delegates who participate in the 2016 Republican National Convention are unbound on each ballot round, including the first. Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2016/03/13/rnc-rules-comm-member-every-delegate-at-gop-convention-not-bound-on-first-ballot/#ixzz42pBrTlVl

The Republican Party needs candidates to stay in the presidential race in order to force a brokered convention and deny front-runner Donald Trump the nomination, a former senior aide to President George W. Bush said Friday. That strategy will surely alienate some of Trump's supporters, said Sara Fagen, now a partner at public affairs firm DDC. But while Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who trails Trump in the delegate count, would have a tough time against Hillary Clinton in a general election, he would keep the core of the party together, she added. "Donald Trump fundamentally breaks the Republican Party, and...

No one who has not participated in the rules-making process for the national Republican Party is likely to understand all provisions of the current rules, much less how those rules, whether as they now read or how they might be changed, would affect what happens at the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Changed or not, The Rules of the Republican Party will have huge effects not expected or predicted by any of the national pundits who make their livings now commenting on the Republican presidential nomination contest. Some surprising aspects of these effects are already becoming better known. A...

[Roger] ” Stone... told WND: "GOP establishment plan to steal the nomination from Trump & to thwart the popular will, and they don’t care if they lose. Trump threatens all the establishment GOP leaders’ cozy deals. He’s a threat to the lobbying class. ... to the consultant class, ... globalists.”... “If Rubio cannot win Florida, then Rubio drops out & Romney is in.”... “If Trump does not win enough delegates to carry the nomination on the first ballot, there’s no way he will be president... On the second ballot, the GOP establishment figures enough delegates, including the 210 GOP superdelegates,...

A 2012 rule change made to help the establishment may come back to bite the party if Donald Trump does well in key states. Charleston, South Carolina - Every presidential election, the Republican Party's elected leaders get together to agree on rules over how to run their national convention. Their internal debates-usually hashed out behind closed doors over byzantine, obscure issues-rarely draw attention. But this year, a rule-tweak from the last election cycle intended to boost the Republican establishment just might backfire on them and end up helping someone many see as Republican enemy #1: Donald Trump. It started in...

We are now hearing news of the Empire Striking Back. We are hearing about a brokered convention. Republican officials and leading figures in the party's establishment are preparing for the possibility of a brokered convention as businessman Donald Trump continues to sit atop the polls in the GOP presidential race.More than 20 of them convened Monday near the Capitol for a dinner held by Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, and the prospect of Trump nearing next year's nominating convention in Cleveland with a significant number of delegates dominated the discussion, according to five people familiar with the meeting.Weighing in...

2016 Election 9:39 PM Dec 10, 2015 What If Republicans Can’t Pick A Nominee Before Their Convention? A FiveThirtyEight Chat A man dressed as Uncle Sam entertains the crowd at the 29th Republican National Convention in Miami in 1968. A man dressed as Uncle Sam entertains the crowd at the 29th Republican National Convention in Miami in 1968. Declan Haun / Chicago History Museum / Getty Images The Washington Post published a story late Thursday that started a heated argument in the FiveThirtyEight offices. So we’re doing an extra 2016 Slack chat this week! The transcript below has been lightly...

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Rev. Al Sharpton took aim at Cleveland's 2016 Republican National Convention in front of a packed house at Cleveland's Olivet Institutional Baptist Church on Friday night, speaking for nearly an hour. "Jeb Bush and Scott Walker and them think they are going to come in here and have four or five days of convention," Sharpton said. "We are going to have another convention outside."

Presidential hopefuls Sen. Rand Paul, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and former Sen. Rick Santorum are in Iowa to deliver their prescriptions for how to unite the Republican Party. […] It is Paul’s third trip to Iowa since the 2012 election. The Kentucky senator says the GOP should maintain its core message but make the party more attractive to black and Hispanic voters. …

Republicans may be choosing between gambling or pot when they pick their 2016 convention site. Las Vegas has emerged as the clear early front-runner to host the party’s next presidential nomination convention despite its “Sin City” reputation. Denver is seen as another serious contender, though the city’s “Mile High City” moniker had taken on a different connotation since Colorado legalized marijuana last election. The choice between the two cities — both in crucial swing states the GOP needs to win — had a few RNC members nervous about potential scandals during this past week’s winter meeting, but most were chortling...

Republicans on Friday are expected to remove all obstacles to holding their 2016 presidential nominating convention to the end of June, two months earlier than their 2012 convention in Tampa, The Washington Times has learned. “The party’s rules change moves the convention to an earlier date which will allow our candidate to begin the general campaign earlier,” said Republican National Committee member Bruce Ash, who is chairman of the RNC’s Standing Rules Committee. “I will be voting to create a level playing field for all candidates and to help vet and promote the best candidate to allow the GOP to...

Clint, did you ever make my day. The two biggest names to show up at the Republican convention were Isaac, whose winds thankfully shortened the giant infomercial, and Clint Eastwood, who stole the show on closing night. Republicans were looking for a big name to get big attention, but, as they say, be careful what you ask for. You recall that Clint did that great commercial for Detroit that aired during the Super Bowl. So the GOP thought, hey, let's do it live, on prime time. What they forgot was that Clint is an actor and that the commercial was...

Obama campaign senior adviser David Axelrod called the Republican convention a "terrible failure" on Sunday and said the event had failed to help Mitt Romney in the polls. Speaking on Fox News, Axelrod said he "saw no movement" for Romney in the polls during the GOP convention. "I don't really see any bounce," he said. Axelrod added that the GOP's "snarky attacks and bromides for the base" in Tampa had put Democrats in a strong position to begin their own convention this week in Charlotte, N.C. "I think the race is exactly where it was before they walked in [to...

TAMPA, Fla. — Beyond the hoopla, politics and glitz, the Republican National Convention has been marked by speeches filled with half-truths, misleading statements, obfuscations and downright falsehoods. Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/08/30/164386/at-gop-convention-in-tampa-full.html#storylink=cpy