Conservative blogger and radio host Erick Erickson, an influential activist in the Republican Party, has changed his position and now believes it makes sense to prevent Donald Trump from becoming the nominee at the GOP convention in July.
On March 7, Erickson, who last summer accused Trump of being a sexist, wrote on his website that talk about denying Trump the GOP nomination by way of a brokered or contested convention should end.
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“The way to beat Trump is to beat him in the primaries and caucuses, not steal from him the nomination when he gets the most votes,” he wrote at the time. “Beat Trump at the ballot box, not the convention.”
But Trump has made considerable gains since then, amassing more delegates and winning more primary states, getting him closer to the nomination.
Now, Erickson is leading a new “Conservatives Against Trump” effort, and is calling on GOP voters to support “a unity ticket that unites the Republican Party.”
“If that unity ticket is unable to get 1,237 delegates prior to the convention, we recognize that it took Abraham Lincoln three ballots at the Republican convention in 1860 to become the party’s nominee, and if it is good enough for Lincoln, that process should be good enough for all the candidates without threats of riots,” he wrote Thursday.
Erickson did not say which candidates would make up a “unity ticket” that could stop Trump, and an anti-Trump meeting with Erickson and others was unable to come to any strong plan of action, according to reports.
To win the nomination, a candidate needs 1,237 delegates. Trump is closest but many in and outside the GOP are anticipating a contested convention in July, where no candidate has reached that many and new votes are cast.
