Between discussions about the core values of their party, Republican delegates filed past a big-screen TV inside the Huntington Convention Center in Cleveland on Monday.
“#NeverTrump delegates to change rules,” a CNN ticker crawled.
The implication is that after the platform committee finalizes its work Wednesday and the Rules Committee convenes Thursday, party insiders who loathe Donald Trump will tweak the nominating process so delegates bound to Trump can vote for someone else.
Such a move would likely cause mayhem in the party, and perhaps outside the convention.
“I’m hearing it’s rogue elements that have no credibility and no chance of succeeding,” said David Johnson, an Ohio delegate who is required to cast his first-round vote for Gov. John Kasich, the Ohio primary winner.
Republican leaders haven’t fully embraced their presumptive nominee, even after the New York businessman dispatched his last primary opponent in early May.
Kasich, both presidents Bush and Mitt Romney, the most recent presidential nominee, not only refuse to endorse Trump, they won’t step foot inside Quicken Loans Arena if red, white and blue balloons fall on Trump’s acceptance speech next week.
Sen. Shannon Jones, R-Springboro, and former Rep. Ross McGregor, R-Springfield, won’t be there either. They were to be delegates but relinquished their duties, letting their consciences keep them away.
Virginia attorney Carroll Correll Jr., who campaigned for Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, is arguing in federal court that his vote not be bound to Trump. The RNC Rules Committee could settle Correll’s conundrum before the court does.
Still, though, the mainstream Republicans are sure there will be no surprises when the convention opens next week: Trump will prevail.
“There’s too much at stake,” said Johnson.
Republicans don’t trust Clinton. And they worry about the national debt, an expansion of the Affordable Care Act and liberal judges appointed to the Supreme Court if she wins.
In Ohio, devastated by the loss of 400,000 high-paying, goods-producing jobs since 2000, the campaign messaging has worked for Trump.
As the CEO of a ceramic tile manufacturer, Johnson’s watched his American company shed about 650 jobs (80 percent of payroll) since 2000. Meanwhile, exports to China must pay a 26 percent tariff.
Chinese customs agents have searched his shipments, he said, seeking to pillage the trade secrets of the 104-year-old family company.
Johnson has fought his party’s love of free trade deals for years, even as he has obediently served as a delegate for every GOP presidential nominee since 1988.
Vowing to renegotiate “terrible trade deals,” Trump beat Kasich in the Mahoning Valley, Appalachia and Johnson’s county.
Tracey Winbush, a Youngstown radio talk-show host and the other Ohio delegate on the platform committee, plans to vote for Trump. In the weeks before Ohio’s March primary, Winbush joined a chorus of moderate Republicans who criticized how Trump personally attacked opponents, including Kasich, her choice.
After Kasich dropped out, Winbush was one of the first never-Trumpers to switch.
Johnson and Winbush sit on a platform subcommittee on the economy, jobs and debt. The group recommended opposition to a lame-duck vote on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade deal given fast-track status by Congressional Republicans.
Many Republicans have never gotten over Trump’s racist comments, among them questioning the integrity of a judge because of his Mexican heritage and another his failure to condemn anti-black epithets spoken by his supporters (some antagonized by protesters).
“Trump has made it difficult” to attract minorities to the Republican Party, said Winbush, the only black delegate to appear on the 112-person platform committee.
But the media, which had no minorities present to cover the GOP proceedings Monday, has “sensationalized it,” Winbush said.
“He wasn’t a racist until he ran for office,” she said.
Beacon Journal reporter Doug Livingston can be emailed at dlivingston@thebeaconjournal.com