Donald Trump won a commanding victory in Georgia’s Republican presidential primary last month. But over the weekend the Republican billionaire started losing the bulk of the delegates that were supposed to come with that win to the candidate who finished in third place.
Trump was outmaneuvered by supporters of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz at Saturday’s district conventions held to elect more than half of the 76 delegates who will go to the July nominating convention in Cleveland.
Even the sunniest projections from Trump supporters estimated that he landed only about a dozen of the 42 delegates who he can count on to stick with him through multiple ballots at a contested convention. Supporters of Cruz, who finished third in the primary, said they put supporters in 32 delegate slots.
In any other presidential campaign, the identities of the delegates would be an afterthought. But in this contest, Saturday’s votes by party activists may matter even more than the primary results.
That’s because, despite Trump’s large lead over Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich in national votes, there’s a good chance that he won’t arrive in Cleveland with the 1,237 delegates he needs to clinch the nomination. And if it takes multiple ballots to decide the winner, each of the 42 delegates he won in Georgia could essentially become free agents after the first round.
As the dust settled from Saturday’s votes held in each of the state’s 14 congressional districts, some Trump supporters echoed the candidate. They claimed they were victimized by a rigged system that favors the party elite and marginalized by arcane rules that only lawyers can decipher. One group of spurned Trump supporters bolted with the flag in tow. The campaign said it was investigating “delegate suppression” at some of the meetings.
But there was little denying the organizational weakness Trump showed in Georgia this weekend, which mirrored the setbacks he’s faced in other delegate battles around the nation.
And that doesn’t bode well for Trump when the remaining 31 Georgia delegates will be picked at the state GOP convention in June — or for his chances in Cleveland a month later.
Flag heists and Machiavellian maneuvering
Cruz’s forces started the day optimistic about their chances. His supporters had begun lining up potential delegates almost as soon as the Texan entered the race a year ago. At many meetings, the campaign featured slates brimming with well-known local figures.
Their message, said lead Cruz organizer Scott Johnson, was unwavering: “We’re angry about things in Washington, too. But we’re not ready to tear down the party yet. We want to build it up.”
At the 11th District’s convention in Marietta, the organizing efforts paid off. Trump won 35 percent of the district’s vote in March, while Cruz finished third with less than one-quarter support. But Trump’s supporters were routed by Cruz loyalists.
After five hours of speeches and votes, the convention will send two hardcore Cruz backers to Cleveland: Johnson and former Rep. Bob Barr, a one-time presidential candidate who has been campaigning across the nation for Cruz. Brad Carver, a third delegate, is neutral in the race.
“So this is how it goes. [Trump] took Georgia. He took Cherokee County. He took the 11th District,” said Lori Pesta, chairman of the Trump campaign in Cherokee County, scanning the church gym. “So this is amazing. Where did these people come from?”
Trump supporters elsewhere also faced backlash. Debbie Dooley, a tea party organizer and Trump ally, was defeated in her delegate bid at the Seventh District gathering. Several Trump supporters marched out of the Gwinnett convention — not before taking an American flag at the front of the room with them.
Dooley blamed a “mob rule” mentality at the conventions and charged Cruz’s forces with bucking the will of the voters.
“Such tactics will only serve to make Donald Trump even stronger as voters reject such strong arm tactics,” she said.
Familiar calls for unity
The day wasn’t a total loss for Trump. The campaign locked down a handful of delegates elsewhere in the state, including two in the Second district in southwest Georgia, which overwhelmingly backed Trump in March’s vote.
Brandon Phillips, Trump’s state director, secured one of the slots and two veteran party operatives who won the other two agreed to flip a coin to decide which will stick with Trump through multiple rounds of balloting.
“The point being, we agree to respect the will of the voters barring some grand compromise,” said Joseph Brannan, the district’s GOP chair.
And they pulled out a surprise victory in the Sixth District, a swath of suburban Atlanta won by Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, now long gone from the race.
Vastly outnumbered, Trump backers were soundly defeated by two long-time party activists for the first two delegate slots at the Alpharetta meeting.
But a trio of pro-Trump challengers made a run for the last slot and Dunwoody jeweler Bruce Levell, a longtime GOP organizer who is leading Trump’s minority outreach efforts, emerged triumphant.
“There’s no mistaking who I am,” said Levell, urging the party faithful to support at least one Trump backer for the open slots. “At the end of the day, I’ll vote Republican because that’s all I’ve ever known. You will know what you get with me.”
Brian Jack, Trump’s national delegate director, sought to downplay Saturday’s results by saying the candidate “did better than most expected in Georgia.”
“This is a very insider-driven process, so it’s naturally difficult for outsiders to affect the outcome,” Jack said. “We are investigating concerns of delegate suppression in a few Congressional district conventions, as we want to ensure everyone was treated fairly.”
As more delegate fights loom — Trump also fared poorly in contests this weekend in South Carolina, Wyoming and Florida — Georgia GOP elders made now-familiar calls for unity this summer.
“Many of our fellow Republicans are angry. And angry is a negative attribute. It isn’t successful,” said Attorney General Sam Olens, who was at the Alpharetta meet. “After we leave the convention in Cleveland, if we leave and we’re angry, we lose. We might as well start saying President Clinton.”
But for now, at least, the party infighting goes on. The trio of Republican contenders square off again Tuesday in New York primaries. And if Trump can’t secure a dominating victory in his home state, the GOP contest seems destined for a contested, and rancorous, convention.
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