After burning through millions of dollars in a mostly failed attempt to sway Republican primary voters, big-money outside groups opposing Donald Trump have turned to a far smaller target audience: the delegates who will actually choose the presidential nominee.
Our Principles, which is devoted to keeping Trump from winning, and super PACs backing Ted Cruz and John Kasich are spending their time and money researching the complex process of delegate selection and reaching out to those party insiders. None of the groups have put up ads for Tuesday’s New York primary.
Delegates are the people — typically longtime Republicans and state party activists — who will have their say at the GOP convention this summer in Cleveland if Trump does not lock up the nomination first in the remaining voting contests.
The hot pursuit of such low-profile people by outside groups is yet another unprecedented twist in a history-defying presidential primary season.
The delegate focus comes after the groups’ earlier efforts turned out to be money not particularly well spent. GOP-aligned groups spent at least $218 million on presidential television and radio ads, according to advertising tracker Kantar Media’s CMAG. In one example, last month Our Principles put $2.3 million into ads trying to persuade Florida voters to ditch Trump, but he won the state anyway.
“At this stage, the delegate fight is the most important part of the race,” said Tim Miller, a spokesman for Our Principles. “The work we’re doing on it is how we get the biggest bang for our buck.”
The Trump, Cruz and Kasich campaigns all pay specialists to help them with their own delegate strategy. Yet the outside groups can’t resist crafting a role for themselves. By law, candidates cannot direct their helpful super PACs on how to spend money on paid communications. However, candidates and the outside groups keep a close eye on what the others are doing.
At a donor event last weekend at the Venetian casino resort in Las Vegas, pro-Cruz super PAC officials explained to a rapt audience how they are diving into data about Republican delegates. That super PAC event took place on the same floor as a Cruz campaign finance event, which delved into similar material.
Douglas Heye, a former communications director for the Republican National Convention, said the organizational nature of a potential delegate fight plays into Cruz’s strengths. The Texas senator has cultivated relationships with conservative leaders across the country. Now they’re helping him woo delegates.
“Cruz hasn’t done things in haphazard fashion,” said Heye, who opposes Trump but is otherwise unaligned. “It takes a real team and the hard work of surrogates and coalitions to succeed at mastering the process in all 50 states.”
New Day for America, a super PAC backing Kasich, is “executing a delegate outreach strategy,” said spokeswoman Connie Wehrkamp. She declined to give details.
THE FREE AGENTS
There are two phases to this fight for delegates. The first involves free agents in states where voters don’t have a say. Each time an anti-Trump delegate is selected, it gets a little harder for the front-runner to reach the 1,237 he needs to avoid a contested convention.
Our Principles has keenly focused on these delegates, who hail from North Dakota, Colorado and Wyoming.
The group began reaching out via online advertising back in February, Federal Election Commission filings show. It then worked the phones and mailed literature. Finally, at the state convention site in Colorado Springs last weekend, three of its paid employees and about a half-dozen volunteers distributed “voter guides” likening Trump to President Barack Obama.
In both Colorado and North Dakota, Trump was shut out of delegates. Wyoming selects delegates this weekend.
POTENTIAL CONVERTS
If Trump can’t win outright, most of the delegates who are initially pledged to him by state rules gain the freedom to vote at the convention for whomever they choose. That’s why the three candidates are looking to make friends with them.
Incidentally, there are few rules limiting the ways candidates and outside groups can influence the delegates, Republican election lawyers say. So it’s easy to imagine a deep-pocketed super PAC paying for delegates’ accommodations in Cleveland and giving them other perks.
Our Principles’ Miller said the group is assessing what it will do in this second phase of the delegate hunt.
Another Trump opponent, the Washington group Club for Growth, has also at least temporarily stopped its TV ads. Spokesman Doug Sachtelben said that while it hasn’t done anything with delegates yet, “nothing is off the table.”
Pro-Trump forces are also keen to get into the game.
“We’re running ads and a data program to fill as many delegate slots as we can with delegates who like Trump,” said Jesse Benton, a spokesman for Great America PAC.
The group has reported to the FEC its plans to spend more than $1 million in ads across the country — some aiming to whip up anger about a potential contested convention.
“Donald Trump will have the most delegates by a wide margin, but the GOP establishment is determined to deny him the nomination in any way possible, even if it means a contested convention,” a narrator says in one. Callers are asked to give money to the super PAC as a show of support for Trump.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
The few are trying to control the masses. Will the “cabal” succeed? Just amazing that this is being done ” in plain sight”. This is scary s**t folks . Cruz and Kasich are fine with this? Hmm…wonder why?
I wonder when or if the American public will ever wake up? Check your history books. The delegate system of selecting a president is an illegal organization. This system was established in the days when the only communication from the western states was the pony express. It would have taken months to get voter information from California to Washington so that the votes could be counted. In the electronic age when our votes can be transmitted as fast as we can mark the ballot, we are being cheated out of our votes. The delegates are not held to any kind of responsibility to the voters wishes. If you have a state with 7 delegates and 4+ vote for a candidate, then the other 3 will too, even if that is not the wishes of the public. The only way to elect a president that is truly selected by the public is to abolish the illegal delegate system and use public votes to make the selections. At least this way, if a candidate is selected, it will be because of the wishes of the majority of the voters.
This man is correct on his printing, the one with the most votes is the winner regardless of the delegate system, that is the American way, I hope trump wins the most votes by several million votes then see what the GOP does. If trump is the next president then the politicians in DC will either start being honest or resign there position as they will not be voted back in office if still corrupt, and can lose there retirement and ins.
William:
I wish it were that way my friend. If it were, then there would be no need for delegates. The delegate system was originally intended to balance the voting power between larger states and smaller ones. It worked fairly well until they complicated it with rules.
I truly feel the delegates system should absolutely be abolished! The delegates are nothing but a gangster group who feels they have the power to deny the American Voter a voice in the selection of the President of the United Sates, this is absolutely disgraceful! If this actually happens at the contested convention in Cleveland, then you may as well say, the American Voters rights have been abolished. I just hope that WE THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES, will stand up to them and do everything possible to get this obnoxious powerhouse group of out of our government system! IT IS CALLED CORRUPTION AND IT IS SPREADING FULLFORCE THROUGHOUT OUR GOVERNMENT. IF THIS HAPPENS, I KNOW THAT I WILL NOT VOTE AT ALL IN THE NOVEMBER ELECTION AND I WILL NO LONGER BE A REPUBLICAN. THEY ARE TRUE CON ARTIST! OUR COUNTRY AND GOVERNMENT IS IN GRAVE DANGER AND I JUST HOPE THE AMERICAN PEOPLE REALIZE THIS!
I SAID THAT THIS WOULD HAPPEN SEVERAL MONTHS AGO. HILLARY IS THE CHOICE OF THE RATS FOR THE PRESIDENCY. I FIGURED THIS OUT BECAUSE HUMAN NATURE IS A BAD M.F. WHAT DID I DO TO BE CENSORED BY YOU BASTARDS? WHY IS IT THAT A WAR HERO CANNOT EVEN COMMENT ON YOUR CHEAP RAG. LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ILLUMINATI TRYING TO PICK ANOTHER PRESIDEENT..
So… How much am I getting paid to vote for who???
Does anyone else think that it’s time to do away with Delegates deciding who American Citizens want elected as President??
Basically your States delegates know what is best for all of you!!
Just because 80% of you vote for someone, doesn’t mean your delegates can vote for someone else!!
Total BS, we need to limit money spent by or for anyone!!!
CRUZ IS A SNEKEY ASSHOLE SON OF BITCH SCUMBAG AND NO FRIGEN GOOD NON OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IS ANY GOO EXCEPT TRUMP YA TRUMP HAS A MOUTH BUT 99 PERCENT OF WHAT HE SAYS IS TRUE AND CRUZ AND THE OTHER GUY HAVE TO SNEAK AND PAY FOR DELA GETS
Kasich is fine with this, because this is how he manipulates Ohio…he telegraphs his hand all the time.
How much has Cruz’s native Communist Cuba affected his values and his mental gymnastics? Is Moscow behind Cruz’s push for the White House? I don’t know…I’m just asking? I suppose I need to be asking Putin.
They are attempting to keep the disenfranchising alive. The voters have been disenfranchised for decades and with govt and party propaganda just didn’t realize it. The disenfranchising started back in the industrial revolution when a handful of guys gained, control of a high percentage of the money flow in America. They wanted to keep this so they bought congress and created, legislated, the fed res into existence. The bankers were the kings until say the end of WWII when the pols, dims, realized they could spend at will by just engaging in deficit spending. Which has continued until today. Since O got in power he has, possibly being a one world govt type fellow which is the goal of islam, introduced a DIH, do it himself, type govt. This is a version of a banana republic type govt where yhe pols just make the laws and do as they like, a govt that is by the rule of man, instead of a rule of law which is how Constitutional govt is supposed to function. He seems to have the idea that he is bigger then the office he holds instead of the office being bigger then the office holder. There is very much at stake in this election and campaign season. It would not be too much of a stretch to say our form of govt hangs in the balance. The muslims want to establish sharia law or another radical form of govt here and in Europe. IMO let freedom ring and give us liberty or give us death! Vote all the rascals out!!!
WELL THAY ALL ARE NO GOOD S.B ASSHOLES SCUMBAG PEOPLE EXCEPT TRUMP CRUZ IS SNEAKY AND SO IS THE OTHER GUY AND THE REPUBLICANS GOP IS NO GOOD S.B ASSHOLES SCUMBAG THE THE ONLY GOOD REPUBLICAN I IS HONEST IS TRUMP AMEN
Perhaps quoting Ben is needed. We either hang together or hang separately. And in modern terms hang together or get beheaded separately. Women and children too since they are infidels! And from HS typing class Now is the time for all good citizens to come to the aid of their country. Ask not what the country can do for you, but how can you can stop what Obama is doing to the country. The answer is vote. For the refreshing candidate. No more warned over PCers, insiders all. Who knows this might be our last chance for a vote that will be heard round the world? . . .
Very true if Obama issues in Marshall law then no election just anarchy.
America this is our last chance.. We can either surrender to the elitist who control the power that is the
professional full time government politicians, Big business, and/or big media. or let the people vote
and have the vote count. it is either continue working for the benefit of the elitist (controllers) or
they have to listen to the WILL OF THE PEOPLE people is not take the lead we will
be a country with our laws. That is not the way our founding fathers envisioned it, Good bye
freedoms .. Good bye individual choice, GOOD BYE 1st & 2nd ADMENDMENTS ,
Good bye America as we know it ..Sorry kids and grand kids.
MAY GOD HELP US.
The best way to control people is to complicate the system to a degree that the common citizen cannot understand it. That is why we now need lawyers to do what a handshake used to seal.
The beauty of style and grace and harmony and good rhythm depend on simplicity. (Plato)
I hold a degree in Electronics Engineering Technology and whenever I designed a system I continually kept this statement in mind. I am now retired and I see that it still holds true in this world of chaos where entropy prevails so dominately, where “entropy” is a measure of the disorder in a system. Today more than at any other time in history, we need to put aside the emotional thoughts of why we may like or dislike a candidate and consider from a logical and realistic perspective, what has this person really accomplished. Have they built their empire of their own volition as is indicated in the Preamble to the Constitution, or have they been parasites on the butt of humanity and made their millions in a more deceitful way.
I THINK THEY SHOULD PUBLISH EVERY DELEGATES NAME WHO COMMITTED TO TRUMP AND THEN SOLD US OUT. Let these creeps go back to their hometowns to face the voters who sent them.
“light of peace,” eh?
Don’t get me wrong. i think that if the R nomination is taken by someone other than Trump, that’s exactly what should happen. Won’t, but that’s what should HAPPEN. You see it’s a “secret ballot,” don’tcha know, so you won’t have a clue who to blame. But, you might want to check out who comes home from the RNC with a new car, boat, or their mortgage paid off, or what-have-you, then PUBLISH those names and facts. i just found it a bit incongruous that you’d call yourself “light of peace” and recommend exposing the turncoats to whatever might await them in their hometowns, that’s all.
Unless your peace is in light of Patrick Henry’s most famous speech, “Everywhere men cry, ‘Peace! Peace!’, but there is no peace; is life so dear, or peace so sweet, that it must be purchased at the price of chains, and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! i know not what course others may take, but as for me, Give me Liberty, or give me death.”
Personally, i think that liberty should be taken and exercised; if you wait for someone to give it to you, you’ll wait ’til your life is over.