As the movement to deny Donald Trump the Republican nomination petered out this week, there was one political operative cheering a little louder than the rest.
Brian Jack, a sixth-generation Georgian who graduated from Woodward Academy, is Donald Trump’s national delegate director. And this cycle, with anti-Trump forces from within the party challenging the campaign at every turn, it has become a preeminent posting.
Jack’s mission was to recruit and elect pro-Trump delegates, one-by-one, to reach the 1,237 mark that Trump needed to secure the nomination – and stave off a floor flight from supporters of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and other critics of the businessman.
The job shifted once Trump clinched the nomination as the campaign readied for internal battles at the Republican National Convention. Jack was put in charge of building and managing the delegate whip operation for the Platform and Rules committees – the two panels where anti-Trump forces were making a final stand.
Working in tandem with another Georgian, Republican National Committeeman Randy Evans, Trump's allies joined forces with party stalwarts this week to block a final attempt to let the delegates follow their consciences and ignore their pledges to support the candidates who won their states' votes.
Delegates also approved a pro-Trump party platform that endorses many of his campaign's top promises. And, much to the campaign's glee, another committee voted to oust a delegate from the District of Columbia who said she could never support Trump.
Those votes all but ended the effort to quash Trump’s coronation at the convention that starts Monday – and sent a signal that Trump’s campaign is in command of the four-day event.
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