CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Republican National Convention nomination vote for Donald Trump Tuesday will be overwhelming but not completely unanimous. Trump and his running mate Mike Pence are expected to be formally nominated by delegates early Tuesday evening for president and vice president of the Republican Party.
The nomination process for both president and vice president includes a roll call of each state delegation casting its vote, via a representative of the delegation’s choosing. This person, often the state party chair or national committeeman or committeewoman, announces how many delegates their state will vote for and usually brags on his or her home state.
Not every state delegation will cast its votes for Trump. Gov. John Kasich won his home state of Ohio, and the delegation is expected to cast all 66 delegate votes to him on the floor, while Texas overwhelmingly voted for native son Sen. Ted Cruz during its primary and will cast the majority of its votes to Trump. These situations can change, however, if Kasich or Cruz release all of their pledged delegates to vote however they please on the first ballot.
Even if Cruz and Kasich do not release their delegates, Trump’s nomination already sealed. The New York developer clinched the necessary 1,237 pledged delegates, which is a majority of delegates seated on the convention floor, during the Republican primary and is expected to receive more than that number during the roll call vote.
“If Ted Cruz had not told us not to vote for him, I’m going to vote for Ted Cruz,” East Texas delegate Butch Marsalis told KLTV.
However, he said he would ultimately vote for Trump in the general election. “In my humble opinion, the best candidate to take the county and change it is Donald Trump,” Marsalis added.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio plans to release his pledged delegates, and some are likely to vote for Trump, as Rubio is expected to speak in support of Trump’s nomination.
New York Republican Rep. Chris Collins, the first House member to endorse Trump, will second the nomination through a speech. This will be Collins’ second speech at the convention.
An anti-Trump group tried and failed to stop the Trump nomination last week at the convention rules committee meeting by unbinding certain state delegates who must cast their ballots according to the results of their state party primary. Another failed effort to do so happened on Monday when several state delegations petitioned for a roll call vote over the adoption of the convention rules.