While Donald Trump has virtually sewn up the Republican nomination, backers of Ted Cruz and other conservatives are bracing for a fight over the platform at the GOP convention in July.
Since Trump disagrees with aspects of the platform and is generally unpredictable, Cruz delegates are setting themselves up for a fight. Taxes, the minimum wage and abortion are considered areas where there could be conflict.
On Tuesday, Cruz positioned himself to aid a platform fight when he announced he would not release his delegates in at least three states, giving him more pull at the convention. Supporters of the Texas senator are expecting him to be represented on the platform committee, which will bring the 2016 language before delegates on the floor of the convention.
“I think it’s clearly in the mold of Cruz [more] than Trump,” said Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council and a member of the platform committee, who acknowledged there would indeed be changes to the platform. However, what he and other Cruz supporters worry about is wholesale changes brought forth by backers of the presumptive nominee.
“There’s going to be some modifications to it. The question is: Is there a major overhaul or is there just a fine tuning of the document? I think the latter is preferred, that it’s just a fine tuning and not an overhaul,” said Perkins, formerly a Cruz supporter. “I don’t know what to expect. I would just say from my perspective that the party and the party’s nominee is going to be in a better place if they don’t go into a major overhaul and have a big fight over the platform.”
A major point of contention between Trump and many conservative delegates is likely to be on abortion, with the platform backing the life of the unborn without listing any exceptions. In an NBC town hall last month, Trump said that would “absolutely” want to change the platform to include exceptions for rape, incest and for the life of the mother.
“I think that becomes problematic if he wants to do that,” Perkins said. “Donald Trump has said a lot of things that he has modified as time has gone on, so I don’t know what to expect quite frankly … I’ve not talked to his campaign about their approach to the platform. So I think conservatives are gearing up for a fight — we’d prefer not to have one. But certainly when it comes to these core conservative values and principles, they’re not going to yield and walk away from them.”
Some, however, believe that Trump should extend an olive branch to conservatives he will need to bring the party together before November, with the platform being a part of that equation. Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus argued Monday that Trump should take “off the table” a potential rewriting of the platform to relieve the “anxiety” of those worried about such a fight.
“Chairman Priebus is giving Donald Trump great advice,” said Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union and former political director in the Bush administration. “I think the further he goes along and embraces the platform, the stronger signal he will send to conservative leaders and activists that he intends to run as and govern as a conservative Republican.”
However, a Trump-led fight over the platform might not be a battle not worth fighting for the real estate mogul, who is looking to throw more “showbiz” into the convention and may not want to jeopardize what he has planned, especially over contentious issues to conservatives.
“This may be a bridge too far for Trump,” said Ron Bonjean, a veteran GOP consultant. “He should really be worried about connecting with voters on a large scale basis through a potentially amazing [convention].
At this point, only 20 percent of the platform committee has been set, with the rest to be filled out at state primaries and conventions, with one man and one woman representing each state.
“It’s a male and a female. That’s the only two categories — male and female. Now, the Democratic Party may have three, but the Republicans just [have] two,” Perkins said.
