Amid the growing feeling that Republican front-runner Donald Trump could fall short of the requisite number of delegates to clinch the presidential nomination, the party leadership has for the first time stated publicly that it is preparing for the eventuality of a “contested convention”.
“I think it’s possible and we’re preparing for that possibility,” Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said on Sunday, making it clear that a candidate will have to get 1,237 delegates to win the nomination outright, failing which the party convention will select the nominee.
Even so, Priebus, in a qualified response, tended to discount the possibility that the chosen nominee would be someone other than the three currently in the fray — Trump, Senator Ted Cruz or Ohio Governor John Kasich.
“I can’t 100 per cent guarantee that. But I can’t imagine right now sitting here believing it would be anyone but the three remaining candidates,” Priebus told ABC News against the backdrop of speculation that the Republican convention could nominate a senior party figure who may have kept out of the race.
Trump, who is well ahead of his other two rivals in the delegate count, is clearly not amused by what the Republican bosses may have in store for him. On Sunday, he stated pointedly that it would be “very unfair” to deny him the nomination if he ends up on the top but a little short of the majority.
“If I’m a little bit short — and one of the reasons was we had so many candidates. I mean, we started off with 17 candidates,” Trump told the same network in a separate interview, adding, “There are so many candidates, so it’s very hard to get over that number. It’s very unfair.”
Trump, with a tally of 678 delegates right now, needs about 560 more to reach the magic figure of 1,237. With only 900 or so delegates still to be allocated in the remaining primaries, Trump will have to win around 60 per cent of the available delegates to reach his target.
It’s a far more daunting proposition for Cruz, while for Kasich, it’s a mathematical impossibility. Even so, the Republican leadership is clear that the precise number must be met, failing which the convention in Cleveland in July will go through multi-balloting by the delegates, if need be, to decide the nomination.
Defending the process, Priebus told CNN, “When someone’s a little bit short, you let the process play out. And generally if it’s that close, generally that’s what happens. But certainly what I would say is that the minority of delegates doesn’t rule for the majority.”