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Day 6

Anti-Trump Republicans rally for a last stand at the party's convention

Anti-Trump Republicans hope they will get last shot to stop Trump on the convention floor this summer. Craig Dunn is Republican delegate from Indiana. He'll be going to the party's convention in July and he tells Brent he'll vote against Trump if there's a contested convention.
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U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump suffered a setback in the Wisconsin primary, losing the majority of delegates to his rival Ted Cruz. Some pundits say that outcome now breathes new life into the idea Trump could be taken to a brokered convention. (Jim Young/Reuters)
Day 67:44Anti-Trump Republicans rally for a last stand at the party's convention

Craig Dunn didn't set out to pick a fight with Donald Trump's supporters. But he's in their crosshairs now. 

"It has been an unrelenting series of nasty e-mails," he tells host Brent Bambury. "On my personal e-mail, my business e-mail, my political party e-mail, my Facebook messaging account, voice mail at home, voice mail at work. Any way that a person can get at me."

Trump supporters are angry with Dunn, a Republican Party delegate from Indiana's 4th district, because he has pledged to vote against Trump after the first ballot if there's a contested nomination at the Republican Party's convention in Cleveland in May. 

Trump will almost certainly arrive at the convention with more delegates than any other candidate. But there's a chance he won't get the 1,237 delegates he needs for an absolute majority on the first ballot, which would drive the convention to subsequent votes, at which point many delegates would be free to back whoever they like. 

"If this be the death of the Republican Party, let us die with dignity." -- Republican delegate Craig- Republican delegate Craig Dunn

Trump says that shouldn't be allowed. "Nobody should take delegates and claim victory unless they get those delegates with voters," he says. "It's a crooked system. It's a system that's rigged." 

But Dunn tells Bambury that's just how the rules work and that Trump's supporters seem to have a double-standard. 

"It seems perfectly reasonable to them that their candidate should get 34 per cent of the vote in Florida and 100 per cent of the delegates."

Dunn acknowledges that nominating a candidate who got fewer delegates than Trump could provoke a backlash from some corners of the party. But he says the risk is worth it. 

"I feel very passionately that I don't want Donald Trump as our nominee," Dunn says. "I can only think of one situation [in which I'd vote for Trump] and that would be if Satan was one vote away from locking up the nomination and Donald Trump was the only alternative."

"You know this is another one of those things that's probably going to light up my inbox," he tells Bambury. "But if this be the death of the Republican Party, let us die with dignity."

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