Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump points as he speaks at a campaign stop, March 30, in Appleton, Wis. (Photo by Nam Y. Huh, The Associated Press)
Donald Trump has a lot to say about Colorado’s Republican caucus, which left him with none of the state’s 34 delegates to the Republican National Convention this summer. And Thursday it was more than 140 Twitter characters.
The Republican frontrunner Thursday that fleshes out he has levied at the Colorado GOP, an dicey tactic for a candidate who could need these party-line Coloradans in November’s general election. Elephants have a long memory.
“No one forced anyone to cancel the vote in Colorado,” Trump said, referring to the state GOP’s choice to c at the March 1 Colorado caucus. “Political insiders made a choice to cancel it. And it was the wrong choice.
“Responsible leaders should be shocked by the idea that party officials can simply cancel elections in America if they don’t like what the voters may decide.”
Trump took a jab at Colorada Republican leaders in the op-ed piece that might leave a mark in a state constantly struggles over the politics of illegal immigration.
“How have we gotten to the point where politicians defend a rigged delegate-selection process with more passion than they have ever defended America’s borders?” Trump wrote.
“Perhaps it is because politicians care more about securing their private club than about securing their country.”
Trump on the steps of the state Capitol Friday afternoon. A separate protest is planned at the same time, 3 p.m., in support of the state party at the Colorado GOP headquarters in Greenwood Village.
Jimmy Sengenberger, the who organized the rally in support of the state party, his own editorial thoughts on Trump’s most recent Colorado tirade. In an e-mail, he told me this:
“While Mr. Trump makes a fair case for changing the system to a primary, it is simply inaccurate for him to say that voters were, in essence, disenfranchised by the State GOP ‘canceling a vote.’ In fact, every Republican had the opportunity to show up and vote at caucus for higher-level assemblies in literally thousands of individual elections on March 1. That election was not ‘canceled.’
“The only difference between this year and previous caucus years is that this time the elites at the RNC decided to force a rules change on states like Colorado to establish a binding straw poll, when we had always had preference polls that would not bind delegates to the National convention. That’s why we didn’t have a straw poll.
“I went to my precinct caucus. I got elected to the State Convention. I made my case for national delegate to those voters who were also elected to represent their local communities at the state convention. And I was elected an alternate delegate to the convention. You can’t tell me those votes didn’t happen, that I didn’t earn those votes.
“Nearly 4,000 eligible voters attended the state Convention last Saturday. The way Trump presents it, 4,000 people gathered together as a group beforehand, decided to create a Cruz Cabal, and executed a yuge conspiracy which resulted in a delegate sweep for Cruz and seven alternates for Trump. I don’t see how that’s practical.”
