A member of the Republican National Convention’s rules committee has reportedly hatched a plan to lock Donald Trump in as the GOP nominee ahead of next month’s convention in Cleveland.
Solomon Yue, a delegate to the national convention from Oregon, plans to propose an amendment to fellow committee members that would prohibit the committee from making any changes to the rules that governed the 2012 national convention.
The proposal would effectively block those belonging to the “Free the Delegates” movement from instituting a “conscience clause” to allow all 2,742 delegates to vote for whomever on the first ballot regardless of the outcome of the nominating contest in their states.
“This proposal would take politics out of the rulemaking process and focus on unity so we could defeat Hillary Clinton in November,” Yue, who previously circulated a proposal to change the convention rulebook at the RNC’s spring meeting, told MSNBC.
While blocking rule changes from taking effect at this year’s convention, Yue’s proposal would allow for amendments voted on and passed by the rules committee to be put into place at the “2020 national convention.”
Like the proposals being floated by anti-Trump delegates on the committee, Yue’s amendment would have to earn majority support among the 112-member rules committee before being voted on by all delegates, a majority of which would also have to support the proposal in order for it to take effect.
Nevertheless, Yue described his solution as “very, very simple” and one that could be embraced by members of the rules committee who wish to avoid a contested convention.
Rules committee members are expected to convene a week before the GOP convention begins on July 18 to draft the rules for what is shaping up to be quite the spectacle in Cleveland.
