Senate Majority Leader [crscore]Mitch McConnell[/crscore] outmaneuvered Kentucky Trump supporters on Monday.
McConnell was elected as a party delegate to head up the state Republican Party’s 25-person delegation in Cleveland this July.
Although Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump won the state primary on March 5, many of the elected delegates, or slate, are not supporters of the New York developer, The Kentucky Enquirer reported.
Trump, [crscore]Ted Cruz[/crscore], and John Kasich campaign surrogates were at the Lexington Convention Center Saturday attempting to persuade delegates their way. Kasich and Cruz representatives were reportedly pleased with the slate. All the delegates become unbound on the second ballot of the convention from casting their vote to the results of the primary.
Trump won 35 percent of the Kentucky primary vote, winning 17 bound delegates, while Cruz Won 31 percent and was awarded 15 delegates. Both Florida Sen.[crscore]Marco Rubio[/crscore] and Kasich were awarded 7 delegates respectively.
When asked by reporters on the hill Tuesday how he intends to vote on a potential second ballot, McConnell responded, “If it gets to a second ballot, the elected delegates will be free from the obligations that were made on the first ballot, and if we get to a second ballot, we’ll see.”
The state party has control of the majority of their proposed slate, which needs approval by attendees at the state GOP convention. Trump supporters blasted the process telling the Enquirer, “It smells.”
“It might be the way the party has it, but it doesn’t pass the smell test,” Trump supporter Perry Brantley said.