The struggle by a faction within the Republican Party to ditch Donald Trump as the party’s presidential nominee continues in Cleveland, despite the failure on Monday to bring a full roll call vote on changing the party’s nominating rules.
Petitions from a minimum of seven state delegations were required to bring a roll call vote on the matter. While the Secretary of the Convention originally received petitions from nine states, three of them later recanted, leaving only six.
A normal voice vote was held, with several delegates erupting into chants of “Roll call! Roll call!” amid booing from the crowd.
Though the effort to have a roll call on the GOP’s nominating rules vote failed, it offered a startling sign of the division within the Republican Party. On a day when the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee wanted to begin to unify the party around Trump, the messy scene made clear that such a reunion was not in the cards.
One Monday evening, the #NeverTrump organization published a statement in response to the day’s events on Twitter:
#NeverTrump Statement on Convention Rules Vote pic.twitter.com/KR0kS2ZSzN
— #NeverTrump (@NeverTrumpPAC) July 18, 2016