Priebus: Nominee must earn delegate majority

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (AP) — The Republican Party won’t “hand the nomination” to any presidential candidate who fails to win a majority of delegates in the coming weeks, the head of the GOP said Friday.

In a speech Friday to Republican National Committee members in Florida, Chairman Reince Priebus said it doesn’t matter how close a candidate comes, if he doesn’t claim the necessary 1,237 delegates. Front-runner Donald Trump has said he should be the nominee as long as he has the most delegates after the state-by-state primary process ends — even if he falls short, which appears quite possible.

“If we don’t abide by the majority, we don’t honor one of the bedrock values of American government,” Priebus said. “Majority rule is as American as apple pie or Opening Day.”

Priebus said that without a clear majority, the party will pick its nominee at a contested convention, which will be held in July in Cleveland, Ohio.

In another remark that seemed aimed at Trump, Priebus called for his party, including the current crop of contenders, to rally behind the eventual nominee. Trump at different times has declined to rule out a third-party candidacy, should his bid for the Republican nomination fall short.

“No one is forcing them to wear our jersey, Priebus said of the Republican contenders. “We expect our candidates to support our party and our eventual nominee.”

Also Friday, the maverick RNC member who tried altering his party’s rules for picking a presidential candidate said he now believes there is no need for a change because the bylaws are tougher than he realized.

A day earlier, the party’s rules committee easily rejected a bid by Oregon RNC committeeman Solomon Yue aimed at making it harder for a new presidential candidate to emerge from this July’s gathering in Cleveland.

Yue’s proposal would have allowed the 2,472 delegates, by majority vote, to prevent the convention’s presiding officer from allowing new nominees. Supporters of Trump and contender Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and many grassroots conservatives have worried that party leaders will try dumping Trump and Cruz in hopes that an outside candidate will emerge.

On Friday, Yue cited little-noticed remarks that RNC general counsel John Ryder made at Thursday’s rules committee meeting. Ryder said existing rules already require the presiding officer to get a two-thirds majority vote to permit new nominations. That’s a steeper hurdle than what Yue had proposed.

“We went through this for nothing,” Yue said Friday in an interview. “I believe this two-thirds deal is better.”

An internal GOP battle of emails erupted last weekend, with RNC Arizona committeeman Bruce Ash, who chairs the party rules committee, accusing Republican leaders of “a breach of our trust” by trying to improperly sideline Yue’s proposal. Ryder responded at the time that there had been a misunderstanding about how Yue’s proposal had been handled, but said it was a bad idea to change the rules mid-campaign.

It remained unclear Friday why party leaders hadn’t said right away that current rules already require the two-thirds threshold, remarks that could have defused the showdown days earlier.

Asked why that point hadn’t been made earlier, Ryder said Friday, “We had a lot of conversations with Mr. Yue.”

Priebus and other party leaders have argued that any rules change would leave grassroots voters suspicious that leaders were trying to help a particular candidate. Convention delegates will have to approve the rules that will govern their July sessions.