By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
On Friday, March 4, Republican Party Chairman Terry M. Lathan said that there is a lot of misinformation and angst about the GOP nomination process and urged Republicans to ignore the conspiracy theories.
Chairman Lathan said in a statement, “I reached out to Chairman Priebus yesterday. I shared with him there is much misinformation and angst over theories that our nomination process is being hijacked one way or the other.”
Lathan said, “Recently there has been a lot of discussion and opinions surrounding the upcoming nomination of the Republican candidate for President of the United States. While everyone is welcome to their personal opinions in the process to choose our candidate, the ultimate decisions are made from the voters. No person, committee, or group chooses the Republican Party nominee. The people do.”
ALGOP Chairman Lathan called this, “false noise” and urged Republicans to, “Ignore the conspiracy theories, media, social media frenzies…the people decide in the most open process in the world.”
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus told CNN that,
there won’t be, “Any shell games going on” with the GOP nomination process.
Priebus insisted that the rules of the nominating process are “no different today than 100 years ago. Which is you have a process. And whatever candidate gets a majority of the delegates is going to get the support of the party. That’s how it works. It’s not going to be any different. There’s not going to be any shell games going on. That’s the process and we’re going to get it done.”
Priebus dismissed reports of division in the party: “I think that we’re doing great, and I know that this party will come together when it’s all over. Fighting in primaries is not indicative of losing in November.”
Lathan said, “We have a clear, transparent procedure that we follow on election day. With record breaking Republican primary votes being cast this year, we welcome and will listen to the choices that our voters make. As we continue throughout this election season, we will keep our eye on the ultimate goal – to win the White House and stop Hilary Clinton. With the will of the people of our nation, we will succeed.”
Meanwhile the election results over the weekend did nothing to bring any clarity to the process. Billionaire businessman and reality TV star Donald Trump won the primaries in Louisiana and Kentucky. US Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) won the caucuses in Maine and Kansas. US Senator Marco Rubio (R-Florida) won the Primary in Puerto Rico.
According to the Associated Press, Donald Trump presently has 384 delegates, Ted Cruz has 300 delegates, Marco Rubio has 150, and Ohio Governor John Kasich has 37.
On Tuesday, the voters in Idaho, Hawaii, Mississippi, and Michigan will get their say on who is the next Republican nominee for President of the United States.
If no one reaches 1,237 delegates at the Republican Convention after the first ballot, delegates are free to release themselves from the pledged candidate, if they so choose, and can nominate someone from the floor.
When asked if former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney or the Speaker of the House Paul Ryan would be drafted at the convention if no candidate has the 1237 delegates necessary to win the nomination Priebus said, “We have a long way before we even need to think about something like that.”
Chairman Lathan concluded, “With record breaking GOP primaries the message is we will win in November. We want our country back.”
