With fewer than than 48 hours until the 2016 Republican National Convention’s Rules Committee convenes, a leading anti-Trump delegate is increasingly convinced she’ll have the votes necessary to allow the delegates to vote their consciences when casting ballots for the GOP’s presidential nominee.
“I’m gonna get the votes,” Colorado delegate Kendal Unruh tells THE WEEKLY STANDARD. Unruh announced over the weekend that she has secured the votes of at least one quarter of the RNC’s Rules Committee delegates—enough to force a convention-wide vote on a conscience measure—and a federal court ruling has given her even greater confidence. A federal judge ruled Monday that a Virginia law binding all delegates to cast their first ballot at the convention for the candidate receiving the most primary votes in Virginia is a violation of the First Amendment. “A lot of the apprehension and indecision was coming from the fact that they thought it was violating state law,” says Unruh. “Now we have a current court case setting the precedent that states need to stay out of it.”
Most political observers believe that Utah senator Mike Lee, a 2016 RNC delegate and Rules Committee member, will need to throw his support behind the conscience measure if it’s to advance out of committee. “I think if Sen. Lee stands up in the Rules Committee and says, ‘In the interest of transparency I think the delegates should get their choice,’ I think they get their 28,” pro-Trump delegate Randy Evans told CNN.
Unruh wouldn’t say if she had Lee’s support, and Lee has publicly said he’s still deciding. “I won’t be able to tell you anything either on the record,” she said. “But I’m gonna get the votes,” she added with a laugh.
If a “minority report” advances out of the Rules Committee and forces a convention-wide vote, Unruh believes a solid majority will vote in favor of allowing delegates to vote their consciences. “We’ve done some polling” of the delegates, Unruh says, and “over 70 percent support unbinding.” Pro-Trump delegate Randy Evans disagrees, telling the AP that at least 1,700 delegates would reject conscience voting, well above 1,237 needed for a majority.
How does Unruh respond to the argument that she and other anti-Trump delegates would be rejecting the will of the people by voting according to their conscience instead of bound according the previously announced RNC rules? “We’re not a democracy, and our Founding Fathers were explicit that they wanted a representative form of a government,” she says flatly. “If this entire exercise does nothing but teach the world we’re a constitutional republic with representative government and not a democracy that our Founding Fathers called mobocracy—mob rule—then that’s great.”
Unruh argued that delegates who believe Trump is unfit to serve as president have a duty to vote against him. “Subsequent to the primary, he has done several things that have revealed that he certainly should not be commander-in-chief,” she said. “We’re human beings. We’re not robots. We have an obligation to take that into account, and use wisdom and discernment when casting votes.”
In Unruh’s opinion, dumping Trump would improve the GOP’s odds of stopping Hillary in November and, perhaps more importantly, avoid the party’s permanent destruction. “It’s a net gain in voters if we get rid of Donald Trump. It’s not a loss,” she said. “If he’s our nominee, the Republican party goes the way of the Whigs.”
