Despite winning its primary in a landslide, Donald Trump came up short in the battle for delegates in Georgia.
Members of Georgia’s Republican Party met on Saturday to elect 42 of the 72 delegates that will go to Cleveland in July for the Republican National Convention. Trump’s poor showing comes as the businessman is crying foul after losing 34 pledged delegates in Colorado to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.
The activists met in gatherings by congressional district and Trump loyalists were largely shut out of several districts that the businessman carried, according to a report in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Each district had to chose three delegates and three alternates. But Trump’s forces were shut out in several districts.
The Journal-Constitution reported that in three districts the campaign got one slot, and were completely shut out in another district.
In another congressional district, Trump lost all of his slated delegates after several heated votes. A report in Brietbart News said that supporters walked out shortly after Trump was denied any delegates in the 11th district, which Trump won back in March.
Supporters for John Kasich, who only got 6 percent of the vote, also locked up alternate seats in several districts, the Journal-Constitution reported.
Trump won the Georgia primary back in march with 38 percent of the vote. Cruz finished third in the Georgia primary with 23 percent, right behind Florida Sen. Marco Rubio with 24 percent. Rubio has since dropped out of the race.
Trump’s win netted him 42 total pledged delegates, which have to vote for Trump on the first ballot at the national convention. However, after that they are free to vote for anyone else, making the question of who they support critical to Trump’s efforts to lock down the nomination.
The remaining delegates will be chosen during the 2016 convention of the state party in June, the Journal-Constitution said.
The convention fight comes at a time when Trump is complaining about Colorado’s decision to award 34 delegates through the state’s decision to eliminate a straw poll before its state conventions that awarded the delegates.
“No one forced anyone to cancel the vote in Colorado. Political insiders made a choice to cancel it. And it was the wrong choice,” Trump wrote in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal.
