Jeff Kaufman (file photo)
Iowa GOP chairman Jeff Kaufmann says the voters “have spoken” and the plotting to get delegates at the Republican National Convention to choose someone other than Donald Trump as their presidential nominee is “nonsense.”
“To negate what the people have said right now I believe is to negate the very essence of democracy,” Kaufmann says.
Some party leaders have said convention delegates should be able to vote their conscience rather than be bound to vote for Trump. Kaufmann disagrees.
“If we are going to be a bottom up party, as opposed to a top down party, I believe we need to act like a team,” Kaufmann says. “The people have spoken, You cannot believe in bottom up if your answer is: ‘I will accept what the people say as long as I agree with it.'”
Kaufmann made his comments during taping of the “Iowa Press” program that airs tonight on Iowa Public Television.
A “Super PAC” that supported Ted Cruz has begun running ads in states like Iowa, calling for a delegate revolt. Kaufmann said he respects Republicans who are wrestling with the idea of supporting Trump, but Kaufmann suggests those within the GOP who are plotting Trump’s demise are in it for the wrong reasons.
“We’re talking about a large amount of people that are in various degrees of their support for Trump,” Kaufmann told reporters after the “Iowa Press” taping. “We’ve got people that are absolutely thrilled. We’ve got people that are accepting of it. We have people in the process and then we’ve got a tiny, tiny little minority of people with a large megaphone that are talking about all of this. They do not represent more than a sliver of the party.”
And Kaufmann said Iowa Republicans who embrace the “Dump Trump” movement will endanger Iowa’s first-in-the-nation Caucuses. An Urbandale man who’s a delegate to the GOP’s national convention told The Quad City Times earlier this month that the race isn’t over and delegates should vote their conscience. Kaufmann said that is “naive” and not supported by “the facts.”
“I don’t know how to put it any differently,” Kaufmann told reporters. “I don’t know who this individual is, so if the chair of the party doesn’t know who this individual is, chances are they’re not going to have a huge wave in Republican Party politics my guess would be.”
National convention delegate Cecil Stinemetz of Urbandale has a twitter profile that says he is “100 percent committed to put Ted Cruz in the White House.”