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Campaign Launched to Free the Delegates
A grassroots campaign has begun to unbind the delegates to the Republican National Convention so they can be free to nominate a candidate more worthy of the presidency than Donald Trump.
The “Free the Delegates” campaign was initiated by Kendal Unruh, a Cruz delegate from Colorado and a member of the convention rules committee. Unruh is a high school social studies teacher and a conservative Christian with the moral firmness of solid rock. Here she is, explaining her position in an interview on nationwide television.
The campaign began with the issuing of a delegates’ Declaration of Independence stating the case for unbinding the convention. It reads in part;
To our fellow Republicans: We, the undersigned, have decided to come forward “for such a time as this.”…
The rules of the Republican Party have been clear since its first convention in Philadelphia. Delegates can’t be forced to do something which violates their own conscience. Rule 38 clearly states “No delegate or alternate delegate shall be bound by any attempt of any state of Congressional district to impose the unit rule. A ‘unit rule’ prohibited by this section means a rule or law under which a delegation at the national convention casts its entire vote as a unit as determined by a majority vote of the delegation.”
The Constitution protects freedom of association. It is unconstitutional for state governments to violate the First Amendment by mandating the manner in which private citizens govern private institutions (see Cousins v. Wigoda). About the most un-Republican thing the party of Lincoln and Reagan can do is compelling its members to violate their own conscience. And that is particularly true since ours was a party founded by those who refused to violate their consciences as one-time members of the Whig Party. Beyond simply being illegal, such an act is a repudiation of everything it means to be a Republican.
For these reasons, we the undersigned, who have been duly elected as delegates of the Republican Party to represent the interest of our fellow Republicans, consider ourselves unbound and will vote accordingly at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland July 18-21….
We delegates are the closest representation of the base of our party. We are elected officials as well as everyday activists. And because we stand on principle before all else, we are the GOP’s lifeblood. It is time for actual Republicans to determine who our nominee will be once more. Much time, talent, and treasure has been volunteered in order to be delegates to the Republican Party and, in so doing, preserve the conservative platform for which it stands, ensure its integrity and strengthen its legacy. Now, more than ever, with American Exceptionalism teetering on the brink of history, the American people and our cherished Constitution both need the real Republican Party to please stand up. That is our charge to keep in Cleveland, and keep it we will.
On the evening of June 19, delegates attracted by the call held a telecom, and the campaign has now taken off nationwide, breaking press in the Washington Post shortly thereafter.
Trump supporters have responded to the initiative with rage, attacking Unruh and her collaborators with an avalanche of venomous abuse, as exemplified by clinically interesting pieces of hysteria like this.
I don’t think they are going to have much luck with such tactics. This lady is not for turning.
If you want to join the campaign to free the delegates, you can do so at on Facebook at Free the Delegates 2016 or via the internet website at www.freethedelegates.com.
Published in General
True or false? Each convention begins by enacting its own rules, and all that is necessary to “unbind” delegates is for the convention to not “renew” the existing rule (it has a number, I believe) that requires the binding. I’m not really up on this stuff.
I am all for it.
Note:
Wishing bodily harm on others.I hope it happens just so I can watch Sean Hannity [redacted].
A petition? What is the point of that? Do it, or do not do it. If it is time to act out of a sense of greater good of the party and nation, please do so without the transparent fig leaf of “Will of the people”. A bit late for that.
Hannity, stroking and Trump leads the brain in some non-CoC compliant directions.
It’s high time that the Republican party lived up to its name and acted like we want to have a Republic – not a two-bit democracy. The entire purpose of the Constitution is to prevent the government and its majority-elected representatives from trampling over people’s fundamental rights.
So Trump won the nominating contest and its consequent, democratically decided popularity contests? Whither principles? Respectability? Fundamental decency?
We stand for more than “mob rule” and electoral “might makes right.”
Apparently, the occurrence of certain events causing other events to come to pass are non CoC compliant as well. :)
I guess Hannity will be moved to the 11pm slot now. He’s like Milton in Office Space, they kept moving him.
Last Tuesday morning, I realized that I am all in on stopping Trump, that stopping Trump was more important than the rest of election for all of the other candidates at all levels. Therefore, if Trump is nominated, I will vote a Democratic straight ticket (including voting for the Democratic for President for the first time since 1972) to punish the Republican Party so that they never allow someone like Trump be nominated again. On the other hand, if Trump is not nominated, I will vote a Republican straight ticket to reward the courage of the convention.
The Republican Party is facing an existential struggle that will decide its fate for decades to come. I am more than willing to lose the 2016 election to save the party. Hillary is a survivable event; Trump is not.
I also agree that Andrew Sullivan in New York Magazine on 5/1/16 that Trump is an extinction level event.
Therefore I am all in, and will vote a straight ticket, depending solely on if the Republican Party nominates Trump.
Some states have laws that bind the delegates. The issue is how is that enforced?
Someone from Cook’s Political Report described us as “embarrassed Republicans.” The problem is, we are Republicans, but as Mark Levin pointed out, Trump ran as a third-party candidate in the GOP.
Unbinding: Today the convention, tomorrow the electoral college.
Care to flesh this out?
This is a just plain dumb tactic that has no hope of succeeding. I am a Cruz supporter, but Trump won, fair and square. The people already think the system is rigged against them, thus the rise of Trump and Sanders. (And given the revelations out of the DNC, it certainly looks like they are right.) If you think people think the system is rigged now, just wait till they react to a “We know he won but we are changing the rules because we don’t like him.” There would be no better way to convince people that they are right and that the two parties will never let a non-party approved insider win. Down that road lies madness. For better or worse, better to lance the boil now by letting the people have the candidate they selected.
The presidential electors selected by actual voting in each state is a process provided for within the US Constitution. This is completely unrelated to the selection and actions of delegates by private political parties.
I’m trying to paraphrase something that I think I heard Jim Geraghty say. He made it sound relatively simple procedurally. I have no idea what I’m talking about, though.
I understand your point here but I have never thought of primaries being anything other than an expression of the ‘party registrants” preferences for a nominee of the party (this is not an election or binding in any sense other than by Party rules, unless some states have laws on this, which would be bizarre in itself). So, you are correct that the process is rigged to do something different from this and it is rigged differently in different states so that some of the rigging favored Trump and some favored others. The delegates at the national convention are the selected representatives of the Republican Party from each state and they may vote for a nominee in any manner allowed by convention rules.
The result of this tactic, should it succeed, will be a Clinton presidency for 8 years, loss of Congress and the death of the Republican Party. Following that, chaos and either a revolution or a police state, or both.
But otherwise, carry on righteous geniuses!
Oddly, that seems like the path we’re currently on, but whatevs.
The opportunity to treble your money is still open and waiting!
What do they know that you don’t, pray tell?
Which is why it should not be considered unless it’s evident that the alternative will bring about the same/similar result–a not totally unlikely scenario.
Tell you right now they pull this I never vote for another Republican.
(FYI I didn’t vote for Trump in the NC primary. I voted Cruz).
Something something Clinton, something something virtue-signaling
And Levin supported him…
I think we all know that this is hyperbole. Does it really need to be [redacted]?
That hit piece on Unruh that you posted reads exactly like it came out of Donald Trump’s mouth.
This line stood out to me. “It’s time for ACTUAL Republicans to determine who our nominee will be once more.” Who are ACTUAL Republicans? I know many states had open primaries, but didn’t Republicans who voted in the primaries vote for Trump? Are they not ACTUAL Republicans? Look I’m all for eliminating the primary system and have delegates in smoke filled room elect the candidate at the convention but these were the rules to determine who the candidate is. It would seem the primaries are a sham if they can overturn the will of the voters.
How many of the currently unaffiliated, moderately engaged voters who are left on the table by Trump and Hillary really care about the democratic nature of the Republican selection process?
I imagine this effort will have the same success as all the previous ones that were certain to finally stop Trump.
I totally agree with you. My original candidate was not Trump, but he won fair and square. Every single Republican and three Democrats that I know are planning on voting for Trump. Romney is a sore loser, and Bill Kristol must be a Hillary supporter. They, not Trump, are going to lose this election for the Republicans.
For either of the parties to dump their current presumptive nominee, they would need to have some big precipitating event. If the FBI brings forth a list of charges that should put Hillary behind bars for a couple centuries, that’s justification for the Democrats to dump Hillary and re-select at the convention. Most Hillary supporters would probably acquiesce. But I can’t imagine what event could change the mind of Trump supporters. Unless there is evidence of cannibalism, complete with corpses chained up in his basement with Donald’s toothmarks on them, his supporters are not going to accept him being swapped out.