Nine of Arizona’s 58 Republican delegates originally slated to go to the GOP convention in Cleveland next month are skipping the event, Phoenix Fox 10 reports. At least two of those delegates are reportedly skipping because they do not want to cast a ballot for the presumptive nominee, Donald Trump.
Most others, though, say that family or other obligations are keeping them from the convention. Each delegate is expected to be replaced by an alternate.
The nine Arizona GOP delegates include Attorney General Mark Brnovich, Secretary of State Michelle Reagan, former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Frank Riggs, and Zuhdi Jasser, a Muslim reform advocate. Jasser and Riggs told the Associated Press they were only willing to go when there was a chance of a contested convention.
Riggs, who served as a U.S. congressman representing California, said he wanted to put his energy into his wife’s campaign for justice of the peace but he also admitted has “very serious reservations” about Trump as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
Riggs said he “realized that I couldn’t go to Cleveland in good conscience and vote for his (Trump’s) nomination.”
“I guess if there are political consequences, I’ll face those down,” Riggs told the Arizona Capitol Times.