Republicans Gird for Post-Election Battle over RNC

As Election Day looms, the committee’s role in the GOP’s future is shaping up as a subject of intense debate.

 

Eliana Johnson

 

In 1968, Vice President Hubert Humphrey became the Democratic presidential nominee without winning a single primary, when Party delegates snatched the nomination from Minnesota’s anti-war senator, Eugene McCarthy, whom they considered a sure loser in a general election against Richard Nixon. The resulting riots, and Nixon’s subsequent landslide victory in the electoral college, prompted Democrats to enact a series of reforms that diminished both parties’ roles in the nominating process. The days when back-room maneuvering could deliver the presidential nomination to a candidate such as Humphrey are long gone. The populist tenor of the 2016 campaign underscored the weakness of party insiders: The Republican National Committee (RNC) sat idly by as Donald Trump — a man with no political experience, dubious conservative credentials, and substantial electability problems — waltzed to the GOP nomination.........Read more