As Republicans prepare to gather in Cleveland for their convention, a legal challenge in Virginia threatens to upend the process. The lawsuit comes from a Northern Virginia supporter of Ted Cruz who says he should be able to vote his conscience.
This is not the first time that delegates have tried to buck the will of the primaries. Back in 1964, Barry Goldwater largely bypassed the primaries but won the Republican nomination anyway. Then in 1980, supporters of Ted Kennedy started a “Free the Delegates” campaign to deny Jimmy Carter the Democratic nomination. Now a Northern Virginia lawyer and Republican delegate have a suit in federal court.
"Who is the state to tell the party how they must apportion votes?"
That’s Virginia legal expert Rich Kelsey. He says he’s not sure attorney Beau Correll has standing to bring the suit.
“I have a lot of sympathy for the position of the plaintiff. I’m just not sure the plaintiff, who is a delegate and not the party itself, is the right person to bring the suit."
Geoff Skelley at the University of Virginia Center for Politics says even if the lawsuit is successful, it’s unlikely to stop Trump.
“The efforts to stop Trump so far have been completely ineffectual. So why would we think they are going to succeed now?"
Conventions can be unpredictable though, like the time Democrat Martin Van Buren was trying to get the nomination but Tennessee failed to send any delegates to the convention in Baltimore. Supporters of Van Buren supporters found a man from Tennessee at local tavern and brought him to the convention to be a one-man 15 vote delegation for Van Buren.
