Texas Tribune: Which Texans Are Attending Next Week's GOP Convention?
Every four years, prominent Texans show up in large numbers to the Republican National Convention.
But this year in Cleveland, with some Texas Republicans openly refusing to endorse their party's presumptive nominee, Donald Trump, the Texas footprint may be noticeably smaller.
To be sure, plenty of Texas Republicans plan on attending the convention, which starts Monday, including two recent presidential candidates — former Gov. Rick Perry and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, who is expected to be one of the convention speakers.
Also planning to attend: Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, Attorney General Ken Paxton, Texas House Speaker Joe Straus and most of the U.S. House committee chairmen from Texas.
WFAA: Texas delegates to lead rebellion at RNC to deny Trump nomination.
A rebellion is underway in the Bexar County Republican party, led by some San Antonio delegates headed to the Republican National Convention, who want to deny Donald Trump the GOP presidential nomination.
The anti-Trump, last-minute effort is considered a long shot by many since Trump has 1,542 delegates of the 1,237 needed to clinch the GOP nomination. Those delegates will be officially awarded to the billionaire businessman at the July 18-21 Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio.
Rogue GOP delegates, including Grant Moody of San Antonio, are calling for a rule change before the convention delegates start voting. They're asking the national party for a "conscience clause," that would free the delegates to vote for any Republican.
“There is a high duty and responsibility for the delegates,” Moody said. “My hope is we will choose a nominee who can beat Hillary Clinton in November because I don’t think he can.”
Moody said that he not only fears losing the White House to Democrats, but also control of the Senate. Additionally, he doesn’t believe Trump is fit to be president.
My Statesman: Herman: Who is sponsoring the Texas delegation at the GOP convention?
Welcome to the GOP convention’s Texas delegation, brought to you in part by folks who bring you cars (foreign and domestic), chemicals, cable TV, beer, dental insurance and a movie. Corporate sponsorship at political conventions is a tradition, yet another conduit for big-hearted corporations to show their appreciation for our hard-working party officials and their partying devotees.
This year, however, is a bit different. Not enamored with Donald Trump, some corporations that sponsored the 2012 GOP convention have opted out this year. And that comes amid increased need for cash because Congress in 2014 yanked the plug on what would have been about $19 million each party would have received for the 2016 conventions.
The Texas GOP delineated “various sponsorship opportunities” for its delegation. Such generosity knows no legal bounds.
“Please note that the Republican Party of Texas is able to accept unlimited corporate, PAC or personal funds for our national convention expenses,” would-be sponsors were assured.
TribTalk: Trump's in charge, but he shouldn't take it for granted.
Ted Cruz's suspension of his presidential campaign in early May changed the dynamics of the Texas GOP convention held in Dallas two weeks later. While the vast majority of delegates to the state convention remained Cruz supporters, there was a notable shift in attitude toward presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump.
When Cruz still remained in the race as an active candidate, Cruz forces in Texas were poised to make sure that all of the Texas delegates to the upcoming Republican national convention in Cleveland were Cruz loyalists, even though Trump was entitled to nearly one-third of the delegates under convention rules. While Trump delegates from Texas would have been obligated to vote for Trump on the first two ballots, they would be free to vote however they chose to on any disputes that arose at the national convention relating to the platform, rules or credentials. Had Cruz stayed in the race, the Texas delegates for Trump effectively would have been "Trump in name only."
That didn't happen. Once it became clear that Cruz no longer was actively running for president, the mood shifted at the Dallas GOP convention. The delegate selection process for the national convention followed a more typical pattern of picking statewide elected officials, party regulars and grassroots activists to represent the Texas GOP in Cleveland. While the majority of delegates remain Cruz supporters — and some of those delegates remain part of the "never Trump" movement — the vast majority of the delegates seem ready to move on from that fight and do what is necessary to defeat Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, in November.
That effort to unite the party was particularly helped by the convention speech of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who encouraged the delegates to get behind Trump. The Trump campaign also made a shrewd decision to bring Sen. Jeff Sessions from Alabama as a surrogate speaker. Sessions, who is very popular with Texas conservatives, gave a substantive speech that was well received by those delegates still in attendance on the last day of the convention.
