Anti-Trump GOPers Hatch Vice Presidential Plan

Sources say they're working on change to convention's Rule 40
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 11, 2016 7:51 AM CDT
Anti-Trump GOPers Hatch Vice-Presidential Plan
Donald Trump speaks at the former Osram Sylvania light bulb factory in Manchester, New Hampshire last month.   (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)

Donald Trump gets to pick his own apprentices on reality TV—but the rules are different at the Republican National Convention. Anti-Trump Republicans trying to keep him off the GOP ticket have a Plan B: reject his vice presidential pick if they consider the choice unacceptable, NBC reports. In both parties, choosing a vice presidential nominee is already technically up to the delegates in both parties instead of the candidate—Franklin D. Roosevelt was the first to pick his own running mate—and the rebel Republicans want to change the GOP's Rule 40 to make it easier to dump Trump's choice. Among the several suggested changes: The rules currently state that any candidate for president or VP must have the support of delegates from eight states. The anti-Trump GOPers want to lower that number to three.

A source from the "Free the Delegates" group tells BuzzFeed that installing an alternative VP is seen as the "arranged marriage" option. "It’s the grassroots saying if you're going to do this, you're going to do it with our pick," the source says, describing the three-state threshold as "high enough to weed out crazy people, while low enough to let a few states come to terms" with a rival candidate. Another proposed change is this addition: "The preference of any candidate seeking nomination for president of the United States shall have no bearing upon the submission of names for nomination for vice president of the United States nor the recording of votes for the same." With just a week until the convention begins, NBC reports the suggested changes will be debated this week by the Rules Committee. (More Donald Trump stories.)

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