Only during the 2016 election cycle would a 20-year-old delegate be classified as an old “party boss.”
I was elected by the real voters and normal Americans who make up my state’s Republican Party. I followed the rules and democratic procedures that my state party laid out to secure my seat at the convention and never imagined that I would be blamed for ‘rigging’ the presidential nomination process — all because I oppose the GOP frontrunner.
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What we’ve witnessed these last few weeks from Donald Trump and his campaign is nothing more than an organized attempt to pit voters against the Republican Party and its leaders across the country.
I will be interviewed on @foxandfriends at 9:00 A.M. I will be talking about the rigged and boss controlled Republican primaries!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 16, 2016
Trump claims the system is working to prevent him from securing the nomination, but what he fails to acknowledge is how the local and countywide rules that govern the delegate allocation process have been in place for decades, well before he stepped into the race.
It’s critical that we arm ourselves with the facts during a contentious election cycle. The rules he claims are stacked against him doesn’t benefit a single candidate over another as each campaign has the equal opportunity to form their own delegate strategy.
The false narrative Trump has spread is a true disservice to voters nationwide. Honesty is the first qualification we should look for in our nominee as no other trait provides a greater window into a person’s character and their true intentions. His utter lack of understanding of the electoral process is just a small glimpse of what we’d experience under a Trump presidency, the only difference being that our country’s livelihood would be at stake.
Trump’s assertion that the party bosses are stealing this election is a complete falsehood and was only promoted to cover his string of primary losses.
His vulnerability is being thrust into the spotlight as Americans are finally beginning to realize that if the general election were held today, Trump would lose by a significant margin to Hillary Clinton. Millennial, women, and minority voters are rebuking his candidacy at historically high rates, the very demographics that Romney lost in 2012.
Perhaps these polls would look much different had Trump seized on the multiple opportunities he had to forge consensus and to build middle ground. His pledge to unify the party was lost when he demeaned the hundreds of delegates who actively participated in the process to earn their rightful spot at the convention. None of this occurred behind closed doors — but on public ballots and during open party meetings across the country.
Trump believes his plurality of delegates should be sufficient and forced on the will of the majority to secure the nomination, which would disenfranchise nearly 2/3 of the primary voters who supported a candidate other than Trump.
Should the party face an open convention this summer in Cleveland, we can nominate a candidate who has the best chance to unite our party to secure a victory in November — or we can choose a candidate who has a historically high unfavorable rating across large swaths of the electorate and one that will surely be trampled by the Clinton machine.
We will represent the millions of voters who supported our bids as presidential delegates. It is our obligation to give them a candidate who best represents our conservative values and one that can take back the White House.
We are now defending the heart and soul of our party. Personalities come and go, but we must ensure that our principles endure for decades to come.
