Top officials from Ted Cruz’s defunct campaign wouldn’t get in the way if delegates attempted to fell the GOP’s presumptive nominee at the Republican convention, but they are reluctant to become publicly involved in plotting any revolt.
Donald Trump has begun looking ahead to a general election, but some of Cruz’s former staff remain reluctant to board the “Trump train.” Many of Cruz’s supporters want to keep all of their options open as they proceed without any explicit public directive from the Texas senator.
Rick Tyler, a former Cruz campaign communications director who left in February, said he thinks Cruz would be willing to re-enter the 2016 race if the opportunity presents itself at the convention. But, Tyler said, he does not think the campaign is making an effort to change the rules to benefit Cruz because of how it would make them look like sore losers.
“If there was an independent effort that was successful, I could see a path, if they [delegates] denied Trump, for Cruz to win the nomination because he would effectively have the most delegates at the convention,” Tyler said. “Once the rules changed, then it would be a, that would be the start of a new day.”
Cruz delegates across the country have pursued multiple strategies to oust Trump at the convention. Some Cruz delegates have floated the idea of a “conscience clause,” which would allow delegates to unbind themselves from Trump and withhold their vote from him if they cannot support him in good conscience.
Steve Lonegan, a former New Jersey state director of Cruz’s campaign, has helped lead the push for a conscience clause to deny Trump the nomination. Lonegan is now a spokesman for the Courageous Conservatives PAC, a super PAC that supported Cruz in the primary, but he insisted his effort is not affiliated with any candidate.
He does, however, think his efforts helped spark some of the chaos evident in Trump’s recent firing of campaign manager Corey Lewandowski.
Any rules changes would not be accomplished without enlisting Trump delegates, which would be a tall task. Ken Cuccinelli, former Virginia attorney general who led Cruz’s delegate strategy, said he does not see a coup happening, but he would not necessarily try to stop one either.
Asked whether he would try to quash or dissuade Cruz supporters from seeking a rules change, Cuccinelli said, “We’re just standing back from it. We’re just not touching it.”
Cuccinelli’s answer represents a stark departure from when he told NBC News earlier this month: “We are dissuading people from any effort to change the nominating effort in the rules committee.”
When the Washington Examiner asked Cuccinelli about his interest in preventing a rules change, Cuccinelli answered, “Well, I mean when asked, we speak negatively about it, so if you want to call that a form of prevention, but it’s not among our things to do.”
Cuccinelli said he expects to vote for Trump in the fall, but other Cruz officials who have not aligned themselves with the presumptive GOP nominee appear more open to rules changes at the convention.
Bob Vander Plaats, a Cruz campaign national co-chair, said he thinks “every delegate needs to be open” to what takes place at the convention in Cleveland before making up their minds.
“To me, all the facts aren’t on the table,” Vander Plaats said about potential rules changes. “I’ll see how things play out in Cleveland, but I’m not a leader of a coup, I’m not a leader of a change in rules, I’m not a leader in any of that. I’m a participant.”
Vander Plaats joined nearly 1,000 Christian leaders for a meeting with Trump in New York City this week and said he did not learn much that would make him change his mind about Trump as a result.
Vander Plaats said he was encouraged by Trump’s acknowledgment in the private meeting that the Christian leaders in the room would not all endorse him, but that his presence amounted to an endorsement of people of faith.
“I’m still kind of in the wait and see mode, but maybe with the meeting I left encouraged and encouraged because he took the time to have that meeting,” Vander Plaats said. “I think John McCain and Mitt Romney would have been well served if they had a meeting like that.”
Cruz himself has uncharacteristically shied away from press and public appearances since exiting the presidential race. But he re-emerged on the campaign trail this week to stump for U.S. Senate candidate Darryl Glenn in Colorado. In an interview with the Denver Post boosting Glenn, Cruz declined to endorse Trump and said he would watch and listen to what the remaining candidates have to say.
On the stump with Glenn in Colorado, Cruz referenced the presidential race and was met with a shout of “Run, Ted.”
“We may all need to run,” Cruz reportedly quipped in response, before adding, “America will endure.”
