Donald Trump is furious over losing to Ted Cruz in Colorado. Of the 37 Republican delegates up for grabs in Colorado, 3 are party leaders, 21 were elected at district conventions, while another 13 were elected over this past weekend at the Colorado State Republican Convention. According to the Denver Post, each of the 34 elected delegates is supporting Ted Cruz.
Donald Trump’s reaction Monday morning on Fox News was to label the Colorado process a “crooked deal” and to claim that Coloradans “weren’t given a vote.” Trump either fundamentally doesn’t understand the process of becoming the Republican nominee or, more likely, is attempting to stoke the emotions of his followers and push a false victim-based narrative. I was at a precinct-level Colorado caucus, and Mr. Trump, I voted.
A couple of weeks prior to the Colorado caucuses to be held on Super Tuesday, March 1, I received a flyer at my door telling me when and where my precinct was holding its Republican caucus. I had never attended a caucus before, partially because in previous cycles it seemed apparent who the Republican candidate would be so I viewed attending a caucus as a curiosity, not something that I needed to do for my preferred candidate.
This election was different. I have always been a small government constitutional conservative and, as such, I have been a Cruz supporter since he first entered the Senate. This election cycle, I attended the caucus with two goals in mind: try to convince my neighbors to vote for Cruz and dissuade any potential support for Trump.
I entered my precinct’s meeting place the evening of March 1 and was greeted by a neighbor of mine sitting at a registration table. In front of her was a list of all of the registered Republicans in our precinct. She verified I was on the list and gave me a sticker to wear as my credentials. The caucus was open to all registered Republicans in our precinct.
When the precinct captain started the meeting, I scanned the room. To my knowledge, there were no Republican party operatives or elected officials, beside the precinct-level people running the meeting. There were about 25 people in the room.
The precinct captain started off by explaining Colorado’s delegate selection process, which, with respect to the Presidential election, consisted of precinct-level selection of three delegates who then go on to our District Convention. At each of the District Conventions throughout Colorado, 3 National Convention Delegates would be selected, and then finally at the Colorado State Republican Convention (which happened this past weekend), 13 more National Convention Delegates would be selected. The general tone of the precinct captain, who had been to previous Colorado conventions, was that it was a neat experience to witness. He personally wasn’t going to be a delegate unless there weren’t enough volunteers to fill the needed positions.
There were some complaints about the Colorado delegate selection system. They mostly centered on how the process rendered Colorado meaningless in the national nomination process. None of the candidates was paying attention to Colorado and some felt left out. Some lamented that without a typical primary, Colorado was missing out on an opportunity to extract some sort of future benefits from the candidates such as Iowa and its corn subsidies. I found that argument to be revolting as, along with Cruz, I find such subsidies to be counterproductive.
After some county level business, we got to the presidential delegate elections. The precinct captain said that because of Republican party rules there wasn’t going to be a straw poll of presidential preferences. However, since that was the main reason people were in attendance, we ended up having a showing of hands as to whom we preferred. The tally was about 19 for Rubio, around 4 for Cruz, a couple for Kasich and a couple for Trump. During the discussion, it became apparent the Rubio supporters felt he was the most electable, the Cruz supporters (including myself) liked his conservative values, the Kasich supporters liked his experience, and the Trump supporters were angry.
A few people threw their names into the ring to become delegates to the subsequent conventions. For the delegate candidates who could eventually become National Convention Delegates (if elected as such at the District Convention), they each expressed their candidate preferences. Interestingly, they each expressed support for either Rubio or Cruz and noted that they could support the other if their first choice didn’t pan out. They also made it clear that they did not support Trump. One caucus attendee said he’d rather chop off his right arm than vote for Trump. In the end, we elected two delegates who expressed support for Rubio and one who was for Cruz.
I walked out of the caucus that night with mixed emotions. I was saddened that my candidate, Ted Cruz, was a distant second to Marco Rubio (who would drop out of the race two weeks later), but I was buoyed by the discovery that so many of my neighbors shared my disdain for Trump.
Given my caucus experience and the fact that Rubio had dropped out of the race prior to my District’s April 2 convention, it was no surprise when all three of my district’s delegates went to Ted Cruz. It was also no surprise when all 13 of the delegates selected at the Colorado State Republican Convention were for Cruz.
Through a lack of engagement, Mr. Trump essentially made the choice not to be involved in the Colorado process. Indeed, it is apparent from his lack of complaints prior to delegate selection that he was completely unaware of how Colorado would select delegates. To now complain that the system is somehow unfair because it didn’t magically grant him delegates despite his lack of exertion is disingenuous and reeks of desperation.
