Former Republican National Committee Chairman Mike Duncan will lead the GOP Credentials Committee that verifies and seats the delegates at the convention.
Duncan will be joined by Arkansas GOP chairman Doyle Webb, who will serve as a co-chair on the committee. Duncan and Webb will be responsible for resolving any appeals to the contest committee and resolve challenges to the makeup of individual state delegations.
Before Texas Sen. Ted Cruz dropped out of the 2016 race, the credentials committee was expected to be the scene of much controversy. Paul Manafort, Donald Trump’s campaign chairman and chief strategist, told Fox News in April that “we’re going to be filing several credentials challenges.”
If the challenges were successful, then the people responsible for formally selecting the party’s nominee, and writing the rules and platform of the GOP, could change. In a statement, Duncan said the credentials committee will function properly.
“We are going to ensure the delegates and alternates to the convention are properly seated so we can nominate the next president and vice president of the United States,” Duncan said in a statement. “Our delegates are motivated to come together around our eventual nominee in order to help lead our party to victory this November.”
Republicans will gather in Cleveland for their convention in July.
