Donald Trump VP Pick Sets The Stage For Battle For The Soul Of The Republican Party At Cleveland Convention

Donald Trump scored a major victory last week, but most people probably failed to notice. As previously reported by the Inquisitir, a group of Republican delegates organized in June with the goal to alter the rules of the Republican National Convention. If successful, bound delegates would have been allowed to abstain from the first round of voting for the presidential nominee.

Traditionally, Republican delegates are only required to vote according to their state primary results on the first ballot. The bound delegates hoped that once unbound, they could avoid handing Donald Trump the Republican presidential nomination.

Unfortunately, the bound delegates, led by Colorado delegate Kendal Unruh, were not successful. According to the Washington Post, the Republican National Convention’s rules committee met on Thursday, July 14. During a night session of the day-long meeting, the board rejected the unbinding proposal. It seems that the votes to reject the proposal were so overwhelming that the leaders of the committee chose not to record the final tally. While the unbinding proposal received a lot of press attention, apparently it never stood a chance of being passed.

Presumptive nominee Donald Trump wasted no time in celebrating his win on Twitter.

#NeverTrump is never more. They were crushed last night in Cleveland at Rules Committee by a vote of 87-12. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 15, 2016

Donald Trump also extended an olive branch toward conservative Republicans, who have long been skeptical about Trump’s conservative credentials. As the Republican National Convention rules committee decided his fate as a candidate, Donald Trump announced his vice presidential pick, Governor Mike Pence of Indiana. Pence is a die-hard social conservative in contrast to Donald Trump, who is a fiscal conservative with moderate social policy views. Donald Trump’s selection of Mike Pence is an apparent attempt to unite the fractured Republican party, but some wonder if Republican unity could ultimately be the party’s undoing.

According to the New York Times, Donald Trump’s unorthodox campaign tactics may have secured him the nomination while at the same time doing irreparable harm to the Republican Party. Although Trump himself has never publicly expressed support for white supremacy, rants against Islam, Muslim immigrants, Mexican immigrants, and economic competition with Asia have alienated minority voters. The problem is, the Republican Party has been increasingly eager to court the very same minority voters. This disconnect has some circles accusing Donald Trump of cementing the Republican Party as the representatives of rural, working-class whites.

It is worth noting that the powers that be in the Republican Party are aware of the potential problem Donald Trump poses, but they don’t seem to know how to handle it. As problematic as Donald Trump’s campaign has been in wider circles, it has galvanized segments of the Republican Party who feel that their voice is increasingly ignored.

Trump won the Republican primaries by a wide margin. His closest competitor, Senator Ted Cruz, won only 559 delegates during the primary, less than half the number needed for the nomination, and nearly a third of the delegates Trump won. That leaves the Republican Party leaders in an awkward position.

If the Republican Party leaders reject Donald Trump too vehemently, they risk losing the base of voters that he has inspired — voters who could make up as much as a third of the Republican Party. The rejection of that many potential voters could cripple the Republican Party at the national level for years. However, if the Republican Party continues to embrace Donald Trump and his inflammatory rhetoric, they run the risk of alienating minorities and women, voting demographics that are instrumental in presidential elections. In recent polls, Donald Trump and his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, are locked in a statistical dead heat, with Clinton at a slight advantage.

The battle for the Republican Party starts at the Republican National Convention, which begins Monday, July 18.

[Photo by Sara D. Davis/Getty Images]