Republican Study Committee (RSC) Chairman Bill Flores told The Daily Caller News Foundation Thursday that GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump’s decision to put Indiana Gov. Mike Pence on the ticket eased his hesitation to endorse the nominee.
The Texas Republican declined to endorse the candidate ahead of the convention due to Trump’s allegation a Hispanic judge would not be able to fairly preside over the lawsuit against Trump University.
“Let me tell you what changed my mind, it was when Donald Trump picked Mike Pence to be his running mate,” he told TheDCNF at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio. “I was convinced that Donald Trump knew exactly what he was doing and he knew that was rounded out the ticket in many ways.”
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Pence has proven his conservative credentials having also served as an RSC chairman and has the temperament needed to win the election, according to the congressman.
Flores said the party needs to get beyond its differences so they can take back the White House this fall, adding Texas Sen. Ted Cruz’s dig at the nominee during his RNC speech Wednesday isn’t helping the party’s goal of unification.
“I think that we’ve got to get behind out nominee, and I understand that during campaigns things get personal and insults are thrown back and fourth, and I think it’s incumbent upon us to move beyond that,” he said. “I mean I cannot avoid forgiving everybody that threw a brick at me during my various campaigns, so I think it’s important for all of us to bury that and say, ‘ok, we need to look forward’ – we’ve got to move forward from never Trump to never Hillary.”
Flores said he believes Trump has what it takes to secure the country’s borders, stimulate the economy and rebuild the military – goals he says presumed Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton will fail to accomplish.
“If you just start going through it in a methodical, process-oriented basis, you’re going to check the boxes for Donald Trump,” he said. “And in my view, that’s more important to the future of my kids and grandkids than any personality conflicts that I may have with Donald Trump or anthing that he might have said that was offensive to me or to my friends or to anybody in America.”
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