First Ballot binding and actual support from delegates are two completely different things. Donald Trump recently learned that the hard way in Louisiana, where Cruz added to his delegate totals. This weekend, more of the same played out as Cruz won a bevy of his supporters as actual delegates to the Cleveland convention on both the first ballot, and as bound votes for other candidates. This is while Trump faced roadblocks in Tennessee.
Colorado
Cruz won first ballot delegates in Colorado this weekend. Two of Colorado’s seven congressional districts held their conventions yesterday. Cruz won the six delegates from those conventions, who pledged to the senator prior to the elections. There are five more district caucuses and the state convention left to go.
The precinct caucuses that selected delegate to each County Assembly was March 1, 2016. The County Assemblies met between March 1st and March 26th to select delegates to the district and state conventions. Cruz’s early strategy in those states has led to this early result. It is too late for Trump and Kasich to correct course. Nineteen delegates are needed for a majority in the Colorado delegation.
North Carolina
In North Carolina, Donald Trump won 30 bound delegates at the primary, and Ted Cruz won 27. That is for the first ballot, where delegates are officially bound. District Conventions were held in four of the state’s thirteen congressional districts last weekend. A grassroots activist in North Carolina provided Conservative Review with the results of those districts. Nine of the 12 delegates elected yesterday are definitely Cruz supporters and have worked to elect Cruz for a significant period of time. Two others identified themselves as Cruz supporters at the convention so that 11 of the 12 are Cruz supporters.
The State Party appoints 30 of the 72 delegates in North Carolina. Three additional delegates are the party chairman and the two National Committee members. The party chairman is a grassroots conservative, who is facing ouster. It is therefore important, for the rules committee, that Cruz supporters win 37 of the 39 remaining delegates to control who is on the rules committee from North Carolina.
Tennessee
Donald Trump faced a delegate setback in Tennessee this weekend as the State Party elected delegates that were not approved by the Trump Campaign. Politico reported:
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