Trump, Cruz to vie for delegates at Arizona Republican convention
Supporters of GOP presidential rivals Donald Trump and Ted Cruz will joust for convention delegates at the Arizona Republican Convention in Mesa.
- Arizona Republicans will meet in downtown Mesa to elect delegates at their state convention
- Rival delegate slates of Donald Trump and Ted Cruz supporters will be considered
- The Arizona GOP delegates will go to the Republican National Convention in Cleveland in July
Arizona Republicans are set to gather Saturday to elect delegates to the Republican National Convention, with supporters of GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump and second-running Ted Cruz hoping to install loyalists in case of a convention-floor fight for the nomination.
State law requires Arizona's national convention delegates to support Trump, the winner of the state's March 22 Republican presidential preference election, or primary. But only on the first ballot.
If Trump fails to clinch the magic number of 1,237 delegates needed for a first-ballot nomination, the state's delegates are not bound to support him on subsequent ballots. That's why Cruz's team has been diligently working to line up for delegate slots pro-Cruz activists who would switch from Trump to Cruz. The national convention will be held July 18-21 in Cleveland.
At the state GOP Convention, which convenes 9 a.m. Saturday at the Mesa Convention Center, Republicans will consider pro-Trump and pro-Cruz delegate slates.
According to the Arizona Republican Party's call for the convention, Republicans will select three delegates and three alternates from each of the state's nine congressional districts and 28 delegates and 28 alternate delegates statewide.
Passions between the rival Trump and Cruz camps remain high, even though Trump's five-state primary sweep Tuesday may have dampened Cruz's hopes.
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U.S. Rep. Trent Franks, R-Arizona, described himself as "unequivocally committed to Mr. Cruz" and told The Arizona Republic on Friday that he supports pro-Cruz efforts within existing convention rules.
Franks said he has done everything "within the bounds of integrity" to openly encourage fellow Republicans to come out for Cruz.
"It's vital that everything be done in the convention, strictly according to the rules, and there should be no backroom deals to change the rules," Franks said. "That said, the reason we have conventions is ... without a clear majority of the American people on the side of a candidate, then the convention has to make the very best decision it can."
But Jack Harper, a former state senator from Surprise who supports Trump, said he is "very astonished" that pro-Cruz Republican elected officials such as Franks and others seem to be working to undermine the will of GOP voters who decisively picked Trump in the Arizona primary.
"It's unprecedented, the way that they are trying to disenfranchise their own constituents," said Harper, who expects to appear on the Trump slate as an at-large delegate.