CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Republican National Committee Convention Rules Committee will convene Thursday thru Friday and the 112-member committee is already being lobbied to allow all convention floor delegates to vote for any candidate they want on the first nominating ballot.
The Make America Awesome PAC, a group opposed to Donald Trump, posted a letter to the committee members urging them to vote to unbind convention delegates. According to the anti-Trump PAC, any member of the public can sign the letter and “have reach literally every single person sitting on that Committee.”
Those who oppose Trump’s nomination hope that at least 28 members of the Convention Rules Committee vote to release any delegates who are mandated to vote for Donald Trump because of the results of their state party contests.
With 28 members, a minority report can be amended to the committee’s majority report and be voted on during the convention on the floor.
“Obviously, given Committee action anticipated this week, we feel that it is incredibly important to give people who want an open and transparent convention a way of making their voices heard by the Rules Committee Members. This is one such way,” MAA PAC spokeswoman Liz Mair said in a statement.
According to Mair, the petition went live at about 1 am Wednesday morning, and already received a decent number of signatures.
“At one point, the site was so highly-trafficked that it crashed. We expect a lot more in the coming hours, too,” she said.
The Never Trump movement is composed of several groups working in tandem to try and stop the New York billionaire from being nominated next week. These groups include: Save Our Party, Delegates Unbound, and Free the Delegates.