Despite a daunting lead in the polls’
Donald Trump ekes out a narrow win in the popular vote and splits the delegates evenly with Ted Cruz, ten and ten:
But the fight is not over. According to the Wall Street Journal (hidden behind a paywall) Ted Cruz now has at least ten more delegates from Louisiana than does Trump. Via Daily Caller:
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz may turn out to be the real winner of the Louisiana Republican primary. Despite losing the primary in early March by fewer than four percentage points and winning an equal number of pledged delegates, Cruz supporters scooped up five of Louisiana’s six positions on key committees intended to write the Republican National Convention’s rules and platform, The Wall Street Journal reports.
Only one Trump supporter managed to receive an appointment to a senior level delegate post. Eric Skrmetta, the Trump campaign’s state co-chairman was named vice chairman of GOP convention delegation, a mainly ceremonial position without decision-making responsibilities.
It appears the Cruz camp’s strategy of winning over state delegates who will be major players at the convention is bearing fruit. Cruz may end up with up to 10 more delegates favorable towards him in his goal to reach 1,237 delegates before Trump does at a possible contested convention.
…
Louisiana Trump supporter Kay Kellogg Katz, a former state legislator who went to every Republican Convention since 1984, said the Cruz campaign played a better delegate strategy in the state. She lost her delegate position in a 22-5 vote to Kim Fralick, a Cruz supporter with no experience in a major political campaign.
This is what happens when you are out-thought, out-organized, and out-hustled. But it isn’t just Louisiana:
In the state of Georgia, where Trump won decisively and was awarded 42 of the Peach State’s 76 delegates, has had a similar turn of events. One particular county, Coweta, heavily went Trump’s way by 12 percentage points, but Georgia Cruz campaign organizer Brant Frost told the WSJ that the senator’s supporters will compose 90 percent of Coweta’s delegates at state and district meetings. This group of delegates will be part of the larger pool of Georgia delegates that are chosen to go to Cleveland.
“A lot of Trump supporters are new,” Phoebe Hobbs, a Trump supporter at a GOP Convention in Cobb County, Ga. told the WSJ, noting they were unaware they needed be at Georgia precinct meetings one month ago.
What is very clear is that if Donald Trump is not awarded the nomination on the first ballot, his bloc of delegates will melt away and his wins are not being capitalized upon because his campaign is essentially incompetent.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member