Georgia Republican delegates who backed Donald Trump's rivals in the GOP primary are being pressed by Ted Cruz's allies to vote against him at next month's convention in Cleveland.
Dozens of Georgia's 76 delegates to the convention have received texts or emails from anti-Trump forces pressing them not to support the party's presumptive nominee at the convention. The calls have only intensified amid growing signs of turmoil within Trump's campaign.
Glynn County Cruz Chairman Larry Grabill, who authored one of the pleas sent to Georgia delegates, wrote that Trump has "shown himself unfit and has little chance to win against Hillary" Clinton. He attached his dispatch to a so-called "Delegates Declaration of Independence" that's making the rounds.
Their late push is a long shot. There is no national leader behind the effort and no money. And in Georgia, while Cruz supporters outmaneuvered Trump in an early round of delegate votes, much of the party has united behind the billionaire since he locked up the nomination.
Still, Randy Evans, the Republican national committeeman from Georgia, told Politico the anti-Trump attempt bubbling around the nation is "implausible but not impossible given the unrest."
Later, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker endorsed one of their preferred methods for stopping Trump: freeing all 2,472 Republican National Convention delegates to vote their conscience, rather than abiding by rules and state laws that bind them to support Trump.
"Delegates are and should be able to vote the way they see fit," Walker said, according to an Associated Press account.
Some Georgia delegates scoffed at the coup attempt. William Carter, a delegate in the Savannah-based 1st Congressional District, accused the plotters of abandoning the GOP and handing the election to the Democrats.
“This is an idiotic and close-minded approach for these people to take. Why?” Carter said. “It's simple, they are willing to have Trump not be the Republican nominee and run as a third-party candidate, which he almost certainly would do if this were to be successful.”
John Wood, who serves as chairman of the district’s GOP committee but is not a delegate, said he’s also received a range of emails and texts from Cruz backers hoping to block Trump in Cleveland.
“There’s still a collective notion that we have not bought into the Trump candidacy. There’s still people that have buyers’ remorse,” Wood said. “I’m not sure what that buyers’ remorse means, but I know it’s complicated. But we know that Donald Trump can help himself by naming a strong running mate.”
Here’s a copy of the email making the rounds:
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