While the news media can’t stop thinking about a brokered Republican convention next July, many admit it’s highly unlikely to happen, and say the press is mostly trying to spice up the 2016 presidential contest.
“Could Republicans face a brokered convention next July?” said a CBS News headline on Thursday. The story said that “GOP officials are beginning to prepare for that possibility as they face a still-crowded field of 14 contenders.”
Wednesday on NBC, “Today” co-anchor Savannah Guthrie said there’s “open discussion among some Republicans of this notion of a brokered convention.”
A column at The Daily Beast by Republican strategist Stuart Stevens asked, “So you want a brokered convention?”
Despite the highly unlikely probability of a brokered convention, one politics reporter told the Washington Examiner’s media desk that other news outlets tend to speculate about it because of the drama it would create in an already-chaotic Republican contest.
“I think a lot of coverage is driven by interest in a narrative,” said the reporter, who requested anonymity to speak candidly about the race. “Brokered conventions… fit the narrative that this primary process has spun out of the Republican National Committee’s control.”
A brokered convention would take place if none of the leading candidates secured a majority of delegates to become the party’s nominee. Delegates would then have to re-vote until a decisive winner is chosen.
It’s a troublesome situation for Republican leaders because it would signify that no one candidate was able to unite the party. It’s also a storyline familiar to the media.
In 2012, with Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich each separately winning an early primary voting state, conservative opinion makers Rush Limbaugh and Joe Scarborough both suggested that a brokered convention was likely.
But Romney emerged as the clear victor and became the nominee.
In January of 2008, as the GOP contest seemed tied between John McCain, Romney, Mike Huckabee and Rudy Giuliani, the Washington Post said that voters in Michigan “may help propel the Republican race toward the first brokered convention in more than a half-century.”
McCain was that year’s nominee.
The politics reporter said that the insatiable need for new content in today’s digital media landscape is also a reason for the never-ending brokered convention fantasizing.
“We’re just in a click-driven media environment where you can never churn out enough content,” the reporter said. “No matter how thin the premise, editors generally just green light a piece if they think it’ll get traction.”
The Washington Post breathed life into the subject this cycle this month. A report by the Post on Dec. 10 said Republicans were “preparing for [a] contested convention” in the event that current GOP frontrunner Donald Trump arrived at the convention “with a significant number of delegates.”
It said veteran GOP operatives met recently over dinner at a restaurant in Washington, D.C., to devise a plan to put their support behind a more acceptable “alternative” to Trump, should the opportunity show itself at the convention in July. On Wednesday, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, who reportedly set up the dinner, dismissed the report.
“The idea that I would call a meeting at a public restaurant in Washington, D.C., to discuss the idea of engineering a brokered convention is ridiculous,” he said. He added that he believed the party would have its nominee well before the convention, most likely by mid-April.
Another reporter who also requested anonymity said Priebus’ dinner “instigated” the brokered convention speculation, but said the news media is “overplaying” it.
“The media always plays up drama and excitement,” the reporter said. “Reporters buzzed about a potential brokered convention in 2012, 2008 and 2004. There’ll be buzz about it in 2020 too, though it’s extraordinarily unlikely to happen.”
