Insurgent delegates look to sink GOP convention rules

CLEVELAND — An insurgent group of GOP delegates who were thwarted in their attempt to pass rules that would weaken the Republican National Committee (RNC) and set Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) up for a 2020 run plans to launch a last-ditch effort to get their amendments passed.

According to a letter obtained by The Hill, a group of one dozen Rules Committee members is urging delegates to reject a rules package approved last week that is set for a vote on the convention floor on Monday.

“After a highly competitive primary season, the RNC leadership had the opportunity to unify grassroots activists and prove we are the party of fairness, transparency, and Rule of Law,” the letter states. “Instead, we were force fed a Rules package we simply cannot support. We encourage our fellow Convention Delegates to vote against the Majority Rules Report. We hope you will stand with us.”

The committee members feel that the RNC unduly pressured delegates in an attempt to maintain its power over the nominating process.

The delegates claim that the RNC withheld information about who would be on the Rules Committee so that they couldn’t mobilize their efforts ahead of time.

And they say they haven’t been able to review the final rules package ahead of the vote on the convention floor Monday.

“We Rules Committee Members were eager to come to Cleveland and represent you and the Grassroots in our home states to create fair and transparent rules that would guide the Republican Party for future elections,” the letter says.

“Instead, we arrived to see [RNC] staff instructing us to transfer power from Convention Delegates to the 168 members of the Republican National Committee, and specifically to the RNC Chairman.”

The insurgents need a majority of delegates from seven states to back their efforts and force a roll call vote on the floor.

The group will also look to bring their individual rules to the convention floor for up and down votes on so-called minority reports. They need to turn in letters with 28 signatures from fellow Rules Committee members at a so-far undisclosed location by noon on Monday for the full convention to consider the rules they hope to enact.

Last week, a vocal contingent on the Republican Rules Committee led by former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli — a close ally of Cruz — sought to push through measures that would have weakened the RNC’s grip over the GOP nominating process and put the Texas senator in a stronger position heading into 2020.

The group proposed stripping RNC Chairman Reince Priebus of his ability to manage the debate schedule and other key elements of the primary.

They also sought to ban lobbyists from being RNC members.

And they hoped to incentivize states to close their primaries to Democrats and independents, while awarding more delegates to congressional districts held by Republicans.

But the RNC and the Trump campaign mobilized against that movement, pressuring Rules Committee members to keep the status quo and backing out of a tentative deal it reached with Cuccinelli that would have closed the primaries.

All of Cuccinelli’s rules went down to defeat with little support on the Rules Committee, which was stacked with RNC members and party loyalists.