Well, this is interesting. Under a new rule adopted by the Pennsylvania GOP in 2015, the 54 delegates elected from Pennsylvania’s 18 Congressional districts (3 per district) are unbound and can vote for any candidate they choose.
Salena Zito and Tom Fontaine report:
All 54 of Pennsylvania's delegates unbound on 1st ballot we called to see where they stand https://t.co/RMH5Ly8NJD pic.twitter.com/BaU8hHzocx
— SalenaZito (@SalenaZito) April 3, 2016
Get ready for chaos.
The Tribune-Review reached out to the 162 people who are running to become GOP delegates in Pennsylvania. While 61 of the 110 candidates who replied said they would cast at least their first convention ballot for the presidential hopeful who wins statewide or in their respective congressional districts, nearly one-third — or 32 of them — said they are committed to Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, John Kasich or Marco Rubio, who has dropped out.
Pennsylvania has a total of 71 delegates. The 54 who are unbound and 17 at-large delegates who have to vote for the statewide winner on the first ballot at the convention, but who are then unbound on subsequent ballots.
.@JonEasley 54 of our delegates are unbound going into the convention on the first ballot in Pennsylvania not 17 https://t.co/OR7DXcLaAG
— SalenaZito (@SalenaZito) March 25, 2016
In other words, the popular vote never really matterd in Pennsylvania and it was always a delegate game:
Since all PA's delegates are unbound, shouldn't the state save money and just cancel the primary election? https://t.co/yHaC4y0qQx
— Eric Boehm (@EricBoehm87) April 3, 2016
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No. Because it has never been about who wins the popular vote it has always been about who wins the delegates https://t.co/IFeuDknWDT
— SalenaZito (@SalenaZito) April 3, 2016
As it stands now, Trump is up by 16.7% in the Real Clear Politics average of polls:
Exit question: Is GOP front-runner Donald Trump aware of this? His supporters are already furious that The Donald has lost delegates in Louisiana and Tennessee because his campaign didn’t know the rules.
https://twitter.com/RogerJStoneJr/status/716420135498678272
If Trump wins the state and ends up with fewer delegates again — which looks likely based on the early counts — get ready for more claims that his delegates have been stolen.
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Related:
Donald Trump wins Louisiana, Kentucky, says it’s time for Rubio to drop out
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