The Donald Trump campaign expects a tough fight on their hands for delegates in Mesa, Arizona at the state’s GOP convention Saturday.
Trump Arizona campaign chair Jeff DeWit accused Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey of helping delegates favorable towards [crscore]Ted Cruz[/crscore] to get elected, according to KJZZ.
“The Ducey staff people who work in the Governor’s office have been at these meetings pushing Ted Cruz’s slate,” DeWit said. “They have said that their goal is to get the Ted Cruz delegates elected. The Governor wants to be the chairman, and from what we have heard, he wants to turn the delegation to Cruz on the second vote. And so we are actively working to keep that from happening.”
According to KJZZ, Ducey along with Trump supporter Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio are among 700 candidates who are proposed to be delegates to the GOP national convention in Cleveland. Ducey has not endorsed any candidate.
Trump won the Arizona primary on March 22 and all 55 state delegates are mandated to cast their votes for him on the first round of voting in Cleveland at the Republican National Convention. However, the delegates are free to vote for another candidate on subsequent ballots.
An Arizona Republican party insider told The Daily Caller that while the Trump campaign was organized to a certain degree, the Cruz campaign appeared to have a stronger grass roots operation when it came to persuading long time GOP activists to their side.
“The Trump camp, while they’re organized, I think some of their guys just don’t have the institutional knowledge that some of the folks that are in the Cruz orbit have,” the Party source said.
He explained, “For instance, Jeff Dewitt, who is the state treasurer, is a great guy, but he is brand new and state treasurer is his first elected office. He was a business guy before he arrived on the scene when he ran for state treasurer in 2014. He’s sort of not somebody who has been around the party apparatus for long periods of time.”
However, Trump supporter and former Maricopa County GOP chair A.J. LaFaro believes the RNC convention will never come to a second ballot and urged supporters of the Trump campaign to come to the state convention and protest the Arizona GOP leadership, KJZZ noted.
