Radio talk-show host Erick Erickson confirmed fears among many of Donald Trump’s supporters on Thursday by calling for a brokered convention to stop the frontrunner from winning the Republican nomination.
Erickson’s new group, Conservatives Against Trump, held a meeting in D.C. to discuss their options, and then called for a brokered convention.
“We call for a unity ticket that unites the Republican Party,” Erickson’s group stated. “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.”
Their plan will likely fail if Trump gets to the convention with more than 1,237 pledged delegates from state primaries and caucuses.
If Trump does not get to the majority number of 1,237 delegates, then the convention can be contested after the first ballot, and pledged delegates can switch their support to other candidates.
The statement does not urge support for Sen. Ted Cruz instead of Trump. The statement does not include the members’ names, except for Erickson.
“We encourage all former Republican candidates not currently supporting Trump to unite against him and encourage all candidates to hold their delegates on the first ballot.”
“Lastly, we intend to keep our options open as to other avenues to oppose Donald Trump. Our multiple decades of work in the conservative movement for free markets, limited government, national defense, religious liberty, life, and marriage are about ideas, not necessarily parties,” Erickson’s group stated.
Trump needs to win about 54 percent of the remaining delegates in order to get to 1,237 — something he can do considering the number of winner-take-all states left to go.
Ted Cruz would need a huge boost of momentum to get to 1,237 delegate. Ohio Gov. John Kasich has no statistical chance to do so. Therefore, the game for Cruz and Kasich is to keep Trump below 1,237.
John Boehner has already said that he would support Paul Ryan on a second ballot if the party brokered the convention.
Breitbart News reported that Kasich is looking to get the win at a brokered convention in his home state of Cleveland.
“With the electoral map shifting significantly in our favor, Gov. Kasich is positioned to accumulate a large share of the almost 1,000 remaining delegates and enter Cleveland in strong position to become the nominee,” Kasich adviser John Weaver said in a memo.
On the topic of a contested convention, Kasich said in the Fox News Republican debate in Detroit that “We are already there.”
Breitbart News spoke to Kasich surrogate John Sununu Jr., of the New Hampshire Sununu dynasty, in the Spin Room after that debate about the possibility of a brokered convention for Kasich.
Sununu told Breitbart News that Kasich will gain delegates in the northern states, hold Trump to less than a majority share of delegates, and then win at a contested convention in Cleveland.
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