A North Dakota Republican Party official says he will propose a rule change for the 2016 GOP national convention that he says would link the primaries to the convention.
North Dakota’s National Committeeman Curly Haugland will be on the rules committee. He says the current rules say a candidate for the Presidential nomination must have the majority of pledged delegates from at least eight states. That could rule out Ohio Governor John Kasich. But Haugland wants to change the rule.
"Any contender who receives even a single delegate as a consequence or result of a primary or a caucus will be deemed to have been nominated," Haugland said in an interview with Prairie Public. "The reason to do that is to respectn and honor the work and the effort people have gone into to campaign for the support of primary voters, and the efforts of the voters themselves to go out and vote."
Haugland says by his count, 8 candidates would be eligible.
Haugland says the rule would also prohibit the convention from selecting someone who had not previously been a candidate for President. He says that would preclude delegates from nominating someone like House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin).
The rules committee will be meeting shortly before the convention convenes.
