The Donald Trump campaign is accusing the Tennessee Republican GOP of attempting to block delegates favorable towards Trump from going to Cleveland this summer, The Tennessean reported.
However, the Tennessee Republican Party disputes Trump’s allegation that a national effort is underway by GOP party leaders to preempt him from becoming the party nominee.
Trump’s Tennessee State Director Darren Morris claims that the state committee party chairman Ryan Haynes agreed on seven names from the 14 at large delegates, which the party ends up appointing.
“They’re picking anti-Trump people,” Morris told The Tennessean. “They’re picking establishment picks who don’t support Donald Trump, and it’s just the same effort that they’re conducting all over the country to steal a vote here, steal a delegate there, to affect the outcome of the convention in July and take the nomination away from Donald Trump.”
He added, “The party chair is a puppet. He is doing the bidding of the party establishment to take the nomination away from Donald Trump.”
Brent Leatherwood, executive director of the Tennessee Republican Party, said the state party never cut any agreement with the Trump camp and accused their campaign of causing problems.
“Instead of stirring up strife and grossly mischaracterizing the conversation that took place between Mr. Morris and Chairman Haynes, let’s set the record straight. There was never an agreement, especially after the Trump campaign spoke dismissively about the Party process and one of our female members,” Leatherwood said, without specifying which member.
Trump won the Tennessee primary with 39 percent (33 delegates) of the vote, Texas Sen. [crscore]Ted Cruz[/crscore] won 25 percent (16 delegates) and Florida Sen. [crscore]Marco Rubio[/crscore] won 21 percent (9 delegates).
The Trump campaign’s Tennessee operation is arguing over the state GOP’s 14 at-large Republicans delegates from the state party’s total delegation of 58 who are selected by the Republican Party’s Executive Committee.
Morris says that while a few pro-Trump names are still delegates, “most” are not. Similar scenarios at state GOP gatherings happened to the Trump campaign recently in Georgia and Louisiana, where pro-Cruz delegates were elected to represent the state over pro-Trump delegates.
The pattern may continue at state conventions in the future, in fact. Roger Stone, an on-again, off-again Trump advisor told GQ in an interview recently that Cruz would pick off delegates from Trump in states that Trump won saying, “He’s going to do the same kind of thing you saw in Louisiana, where they grabbed five extra delegates. The same kind of thing you see in South Carolina, where they’re trying to grab delegates.”
One potential South Carolina GOP delegate agreed with Stone, telling The Daily Caller recently, “Some states like South Carolina, it’s completely unrelated to what happened in the primary.”