Even though GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump carried 155 of 159 counties with over a half million votes, and even though Georgia’s delegates are bound by law to vote for him on the first ballot at the national convention, his candidacy fared poorly in Saturday’s congressional districts where 42 national convention delegates were chosen. Final results show supporters of candidate Ted Cruz gained a majority of delegates elected at the district conventions. Trump supporters estimate only about a dozen of the 42 can be counted to stick with the billionaire businessman through multiple ballots if there is a contested Cleveland convention.
At the 11th Congressional District convention in Marietta which this writer attended, many new people showed up (many of them Trump supporters) yet were unfamiliar with the rules and the delegate selection process. (The district’s GOP website was also down for two weeks, leading to multiple complaints.) Exasperation was summed up by one unidentified senior citizen: “I’ve never voted until now, and have never been to a party event, so I don’t understand the rules.”
At least, in Marietta, convention chairman Edward Lindsay took ample time to answer questions and to explain the rules from the podium. Reports from other districts were not so positive. And, by all accounts, the Cruz campaign had done its organizational homework.
In any event, the complaint regarding a lack of information about rules was aired throughout the state. Many county GOP organizations are faulted for not posting extensive website information, or better utilizing social media, to assist in familiarizing newcomers with county and district rules.
DeKalb County GOP attorney Alex Johnson, however, puts the weekend’s outcome into an interesting perspective. While not endorsing any presidential candidate, he says:
“After hearing about other district Republican conventions over the weekend, and how Cruz ‘took’ a lot of delegate/alternate spots (for 2nd ballot voting) and Trump’s supporters are angry, (there’s an) important question for BOTH candidates’ supporters before the state convention:
“If a delegate or alternate was originally selected by a nominating committee and hasn’t been supporting Cruz since last year, why is the person now assumed to truly be a Cruz delegate, instead of an embedded opportunistic political industry type that’s just saying they are to get the position, pulling their usual playbook of having principled activists fight each other for their own ends (maybe to go to national, or more nefariously for a Bush/Rubio/Kasich/Ryan nomination)?
“Everyone really needs to work together for the good of the party/people, and stop the self-interested from playing great people (I know a lot of great Trump and Cruz supporters) against each other.”
