Minnesota Republicans on Friday dealt a crippling blow to their state’s division of the “Never Trump” movement, voting to toss a party resolution that sought to make it acceptable for party members to oppose the presumed nominee.
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The vote, held by the party’s governing State Central Committee, came even after the resolution had been moderated to win support. Instead of prohibiting the party from spending funds to support its nominee, as a proposal circulated earlier in the week had suggested, it would have affirmed the party’s acceptance of “all volunteers desiring to serve” regardless of their support for “any particular candidate.”
Zero for 2. Losers! RT @dhmontgomery: Would have likely been a vehicle for an anti-Trump resolution. #mngop2016 https://t.co/RQ7KVMbcuu
— JohnGilmore (@Shabbosgoy) May 20, 2016
It was a notable defeat for the movement, which came in the only state Florida Sen. Marco Rubio was able to win during the Republican presidential primary contest. It also happened just a day before the Minnesota GOP was scheduled to hold its final meeting to elect delegates to the presidential nominating convention in July.
After the vote, critics of presumed nominee Donald Trump proposed an impromptu agenda item for the Saturday meeting that would have allowed delegates to discuss the “sense of the convention” as it pertained to the presidential race. That motion was similarly defeated, prompting Republican author and attorney John Gilmore to describe the situation on Twitter: “Zero for 2. Losers!” Gilmore said.
The state’s caucus results technically bind 17 of its delegates slots to Rubio on the first ballot, with 13 for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and just 8 for Trump. However, candidates for those slots will not be required to say who they support before they are voted upon Saturday, which means that fully interpreting the outcome could take awhile.
