No love lost between Alaska GOP and Trump

GOP Republican logo
(Creative Commons image by DonkeyHotey)

Alaska Republicans aren’t giving Donald Trump any additional delegates to help him become the party’s presidential nominee. On the first day of the state GOP convention in Fairbanks on Thursday, the state Central Committee decided to let Sen. Marco Rubio retain the five Alaska delegates he won on Super Tuesday. With Trump closing in on the nomination, Party Chairman Peter Goldberg said the decision not to redistribute the Rubio delegates is a big deal.

“A one candidate shift I don’t think it’ll make a difference. But five? That could make a difference,” he said.

The decision means the Rubio delegates will remain bound to Rubio through at least the first two rounds of balloting at the national convention in July. Trump now has 11 of the 28 Alaska delegates. Trump’s Alaska campaign chairman, Jim Crawford, said he thinks the Rubio delegates should’ve been reallocated to Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz.

“Because when Marco dropped out, he really dropped out. So if he really dropped out, let’s get the allocation done,” Crawford said. “But that’s not the hill we’re going to die on in this thing. Republicans are going to come together. We’ll have a united Republican Party. And we’re going to elect Donald Trump as the president.”

That, or course, remains to be seen. The convention runs through Saturday afternoon. Participants must still pick a new party chairman and decide who will be part of the state’s delegation to the national convention.

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