Sen. Ted Cruz is positioning delegates at the Republican National Convention who could work on his behalf even if they are technically bound to support Donald Trump, according to the top lawyer for Mitt Romney’s presidential campaigns.
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“In both Louisiana and Georgia at the lower level conventions, the Cruz people have won delegates that should go to Donald Trump, will go to Donald Trump on the first ballot, but in fact the people who are going are Ted Cruz supporters,” Ben Ginsberg said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Friday.
Those delegates wouldn’t be allowed to vote for Cruz to be president unless Trump fails to win a majority of delegates on the first ballot, but they could flip to the Texas Republican on a second ballot vote. “But it is also for Rules [Committee] issues, it is also for platform [writing], it is for the vice presidency,” he said.
RNC delegate intrigue is expected to take center stage over the summer as Cruz, Trump and Ohio Gov. John Kasich are preparing for the first contested convention in decades. Trump hopes to head off a floor fight by convincing uncommitted delegates to back him on the first ballot, in much the same way that President Gerald Ford stopped Ronald Reagan in 1976.
If Cruz gains a critical mass of supporters on the Rules Committee, Kasich might pay the most immediate price. Kasich can win the nomination only at the convention, but he is unlikely to win enough states to meet the threshold for being considered at the July event. His hopes thus rest on being able to change the rules to allow his name to be entered into the nomination, which Cruz might oppose.
