Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee for President of the United States.
The “Dump Trump” faction played its final legitimate hand Thursday by attempting to push through a change to party rules that would allow delegates to “vote their conscience” rather than be forced to vote for Trump on the first ballot of the nominating process. That measure failed, 87-21.
Getting an outright majority of the RNC Committee on Rules was always unlikely, but Dump Trump leaders had pledged to get the support of 28 committee members to create a “minority report” that would get a floor vote during next week’s convention. And, despite assurances they had that level of support, the final vote indicates that was not the case.
Many grassroots supporters of the effort to nominate someone other than Trump were disheartened by the news.
The unsuccessful bid to “unbind” the delegates wasn’t the only contentious bit of business on the Rules Committee’s agenda Thursday. The 112-member committee also took up a proposal to amend the existing rules, which allow the RNC itself to change the rules in between the quadrennial national conventions.
Previously, only the Committee on Rules could make changes, which then had to be approved by a majority of national convention delegates. Under RNC Rule 12, which was adopted in 2012 at the behest of Mitt Romney operatives, the rules can be changed at any time.
Leaders of the faction say they will attempt one more time to “free the delegates” with a floor vote at next week’s convention.
