GOP delegates make it official: Trump's their choice
Gregory Korte, USA TODAY 9:17 p.m. EDT July 19, 2016
Sen. Jeff Sessions nominated Donald Trump as the Republican Presidential nominee while Rep. Chris Collins and Lt. Gov. Henry McMaster seconded the nomination on the second day of the Republican National Convention.
GOP delegates make it official: Trump's their choice(Photo: Rodney White, USA TODAY NETWORK)
CLEVELAND — After 56 primaries and caucuses, 17 major candidates and $614.3 million in campaign spending, the Republican party formally nominated its candidate for president of the United States Tuesday in a tightly controlled roll call vote.
And that nominee — with the "presumptive" label no longer attached — is the New York billionaire, reality television star and anti-politician Donald Trump.
It was Trump's son Donald Trump Jr. who was given the honor of putting his father over the 1,237-delegate threshold needed to cinch the nomination.
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"Congratulations, Dad! We love you!" he exclaimed from his front-row seat in the New York delegation. Most delegates burst into raucous applause as Frank Sinatra's New York, New York played on the loudspeakers and a few remaining Trump opponents sat on their hands.
With Trump supporters successfully putting down an attempted insurgent campaign to change the rules Monday, Trump's name was the only one placed in nomination. So the outcome was preordained as the convention secretary, Susie Hudson of Vermont, called the roll of the states Tuesday evening.
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That doesn't mean nomination process — usually a formulaic ritual marked with a bit more suspense this year as "Never Trump" protests loomed over the convention — went off without a hitch.
The first bump in the road was in the District of Columbia, which tried to cast 10 delegates for Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and nine for Ohio Gov. John Kasich. But the convention secretary overruled the delegation, ordering that all 19 delegates be awarded to Trump.
After the roll call, the Alaska delegation protested that its votes had been miscounted. It cast 12 votes for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, 11 for Trump, and five for Rubio. The secretary of the convention cast them all 28 for Trump. After a 21-minute delay, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus explained that, under an obscure rule affecting only four states, Alaska's votes had been reallocated to Trump after the other candidates dropped out.
In past conventions, Priebus said, those delegations wouldn't have been allowed to even state the original vote from the floor.
Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee talk while Alaska recounts their votes during the second day of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland on July 19, 2016. (Photo: Carolyn Kaster, AP)
"I hope you saw tonight that we allowed for other votes of other candidates running to be read. I know that was different than Tampa (the home of the 2012 convention), and I hope you all appreciated that," he said.
Similar irregularities were summarily dispensed with, making the few protest votes irrelevant to the final tally.
The convention chairman, House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, announced before the roll call that it wasn't each delegation's announcement that determines the tally. Instead, under the rules adopted Monday, the secretary must record the votes according to state laws and state and national party rules — leaving no room for bound delegates to make a conscientious objection.
So for the most part, the roll call was matter of simple mathematics. The magic number was 1,237, a simple majority of delegates. According to the Associated Press, Trump had 1,543 delegates locked up going into the convention. By the time every delegate was counted, he had 1,725.
The other votes went to Cruz (475), Kasich (120), Rubio (114), neurosurgeon Ben Carson (7), former Florida governor Jeb Bush (3), and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul (2).
Getting to those final numbers involved a little bit of arcane procedure and not a small amount of stagecraft.
It began with a nomination by Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, a second from Rep. Chris Collins of New York, and a second second from South Carolina Lt. Gov. Henry McMaster.
The states (plus five territories and the District of Columbia) were called in alphabetical order, with the chairman of each delegation reading out the result — often with a digression filled with state historical trivia, chamber of commerce slogans, nods to politicians and boosterism of local sports teams.
The Michigan delegation, after passing on their first
The Michigan delegation, after passing on their first roll call vote, casts their votes during the Republican National Convention in Cleveland July 19, 2016. (Photo: Robert Hanashiro, Robert Hanashiro-USA TODAY Sport)
Some states passed on the first round in deference to Trump's home state of New York — but not without hard feelings.
Ronna Romney McDaniel, the niece of 2012 nominee Mitt Romney, passed on behalf of the Michigan delegation. But she immediately regretted the move, even suggesting she was being punished for Mitt Romney's opposition to Trump. But she later told the Detroit Free Press she was just trying to be a team player. "I was just too nice for my own good,” she said. “I was really disappointed. It was more of a mom, family, Michigan moment.”
Traditionally, the nominee's home state is given the honor of putting its favorite son over the top. And in this case, it was the favorite son's son given that honor.
Donald Trump Jr. makes his way through the crowd.
Donald Trump Jr. makes his way through the crowd after announcing New York's roll call vote, effectively securing the GOP nomination for his father, Donald Trump, during the 2016 Republican National Convention at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland July 19, 2016. (Photo: Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY)
Donald Trump Jr., a Manhattan delegate, announced that 89 of New York's 95 delegates would go to Trump, clinching the nomination for his father.
Afterward, Trump's hand-picked choice for a running mate — Indiana Gov. Mike Pence — was nominated as the Republican vice presidential candidate by voice vote.
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