CLEVELAND — The Republican Party officially nominated Donald Trump for president on Tuesday when delegates from his home state of New York delivered 89 votes and the support of a majority of the convention.
Donald Trump, Jr., accompanied by siblings Eric Trump and Ivanka Trump, announced the delegate tally, 89 out of 95 available, to the convention chair from the floor of Quicken Loans Arena that was not quite full and lacked some of the energy and fanfare that might have been expected at such a celebratory and sympbolic moment of the presidential campaign.
But Trump, Jr., managed to raise the enthusiasm of the convention hall with rousing yet touching remarks to present the New York delegation’s votes that put his father past the threshold of 1,237 delegates required to win the Republican nomination.
“I have the incredible honor of being a part of the ride of this election process. It is my honor to be able to throw Donald Trump over the top tonight with 89 delegates,” Trump, Jr. said. “Congratulations dad; we love you.”
The convention then nominated Indiana Gov. Mike Pence for vice president by an acclamation voice vote. Pence was nominated by Indiana Lt. Gov. Eric Holcomb.
The Trump-Pence ticket now faces Hillary Clinton, who will accept the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination in Philadelphia next week, and a running mate that she is expected to announce on Friday.
The roll call to nominate Trump was uneventful compared to the raucous delegate fight that occured on the convention floor on Day One of the proceedings. On Monday, pro and anti Trump delegates fought over the rules package governing the New York businessman’s nomination.
Some hurt feelings from how that vote was handled carried over to Tuesday. Virginia delegates staged a partial walkout as the roll call for Trump’s nomination was getting underway.
Elsewhere, on the floor, there was some controversy over how Washington, D.C.’s, delegates ended up in Trump’s camp even though the tally revealed votes only for Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and Ohio Gov. John Kasich. The same thing happened to Utah, which reported all of its 40 delegates for Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, before the convention chair recorded them as votes for Trump.
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus took the stage to explain that the convention was acting in accordance with the rules of the RNC and those of the state parties affected, as it relates to delegate binding.
Sen. Mike Lee, a Utah delegate and critic of the rules package adopted on Monday and the heavy handed tactics the RNC and the Trump campaign employed to push it through, said in an interview on the convention floor that he feared that the process would hamper party unity and damage the prospects of Republicans running down ticket.
“Given that Mr. Trump hasn’t been polling particularly well in Utah…and in some other states, sure that’s a concern,” said Lee, who still refuses to endorse the nominee. “But there’s still time for him to change it.”
The final delegate tally was 1,725 for Trump; 475 for Cruz; 120 for Kasich; 114 for Rubio; seven for retired pediatric neurosurgeon Ben Carson; three for former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and two for Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky.
As delegate votes for Cruz were announced, a smattering of cheers would periodically erupt, occassionally followed by boos from Trump supporters. Cruz has never formally endorsed Trump although he did accept an invitation from the nominee to address the convention on Wednesday evening.
Cruz’s conservative supporters comprised the bulk of the failed delegate insurgency. They have have been slow to come around to Trump, a resistance that even on the convention floor that nominated Trump contributed to the lack of energy in the hall compared to past similar convention moments, and a party remains divided.
Will it unify ahead of November? “That’s the $94,000 question,” Rep. Mark Sanford, a South Carolina delegate, said in a interview on the convention floor after Trump’s nomination became official. Sanford previously supported Cruz.
The evening began when Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama formally nominated Trump for president.
Sessions, an ardent critic of immigration reform and opponent of free trade deals, championed many of the issues that Trump adopted to launch his presidential campaign more than a year ago. Sessions later became Trump’s policy godfather, with key members of his Senate staff moving over to the New York businessman’s campaign and wielding wide influence.
“Americans love our country like no other people on earch, but we have got off course,” Sessions said in his nominating speech to the convention. “I came to believe some months ago that Donald Trump is the singular leader that can get this country back on track. He has the strength, the courage, the will to get it done.”
After Sessions placed Trump’s name into nomination, he was seconded by Rep. Chris Collins,R- N.Y., Trump’s first endorser in Congress, and Lt. Gov. Henry McMaster of South Carolina, who helped lead Trump to victory in the early primary state.
Trump effectively wrapped up the nomination in early May with a victory over Cruz and Kasich in the Indiana primary.
But the roll call vote made Trump’s ascendancy official. It also marked a crossroads for the GOP and sent the party hurtling on an uncertain course toward November.
Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign chairman, told reporters that the Republican nominee was “excited about the fact that his quest will finally come to an end.”
“All of you who doubted that he could be nominated will no longer be able to say: ‘Yes, but, maybe it won’t happen,'” Manafort added. “It will have happened and we’re excited about that and it will be something that will be an important moment as far as this campaign is concerned.”
Trump winning the nomination would be a considerable achievement for the first-time candidate for political office. Trump bested a crowded field boasting current and former governors with extensive experience and ties to the Republican Party.
Neither of the two major political parties had nominated anyone other than a current or former political or military official for president in generations. Trump, internationally famous as a reality television star, was doubted in part because it had been so long since voters had taken a chance on a novice.
Trump’s elevation also represents a milestone for the Republican Party, which now hurtles toward November on an uncertain course.
The real estate mogul is a populist who holds views on key issues that are squarely at odds with GOP doctrine. Where traditional Republicans favor free trade, an assertive U.S. leadership role abroad and the reform of entitlement programs, Trump is a protectionist, a quasi-isolationist and opposed to altering Medicare and Social Security.
Trump’s bombastic behavior on the campaign trail, which has included attacking a federal judge with racially charged rhetoric, could also set a new standard for ambitious Republican candidates, especially if he beats presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union, envisions a melding of the conservative wing of the party that identifies with President Ronald Reagan, and Trump’s populist voters. Others remain skeptical.
“The harmonizing of people who call themselves conservative and those who don’t is very doable,” Schlapp said, “especially for the populist forces that want to do something about the economy and our broken immigration system.”
Trump’s formal nomination comes amid continued signs of intraparty strife, in Cleveland and elsewhere, although polling averages show Trump in a tight race with Clinton nationally and in the battleground states.
The roll call of state delegations to nominate Trump began about 24 hours after the convention floor erupted in pandemonium.
On Monday, a floor fight took place between pro-Trump delegates, who comprise the majority of the convention, and a sizable bloc of anti-Trump delegates and others who weren’t necessarily opposed to the nominee but take issue with the RNC leadership.
The insurgency never had a chance, but the fact that it existed illustrated that Trump hasn’t coalesced the party behind him.
Kendal Unruh, a conservative delegate and Cruz supporter from Colorado, said she was happy to hold her nose for past nominees she didn’t like because “they were still Republicans. Donald Trump is not a Republican.”
“They’re asking us to cross a line we can’t cross,” she said.
Tim Carney contributed to this report.
