No Votes? No Problem

Is it possible that one of the three remaining GOP candidates may not get the nomination? Well, sort of. In an election year that has defied political physics, an open convention is not out of the question as the delegate hunt continues.

If no candidate amasses 1,237 delegates during the GOP contests, the nominee would be selected in July by the convention delegates. As the rules stand, a majority of the delegates are bound on the first ballot by the results of their state’s nominating contest. However, after the first ballot has been cast, a complete free-for-all could happen. At that point, many delegates become free agents (depends on the individual rules of the state) and can vote how they want.

Yet what some are now discussing is the possibility of GOP delegates on the rules committee; they could create and amend rules prior to the convention that would allow for delegates to be completely unbound to their specific candidate and to vote for anyone their candidate suggests. In this scenario, someone who hasn’t won a single state or any delegates could cut a deal with a remaining candidate and ask for their delegates to support them instead.

Among the names being floated: Gov. Mitt Romney, Gov. Scott Walker, and House Speaker Paul Ryan.

Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, has not ruled out becoming the nominee again this year at a brokered convention, though he insisted he couldn’t imagine that happening.

“I don’t think anyone in our party should say, ‘Oh no, even if the people of the party wanted me to be president, I would say no to it.’ No one is going to say that,” Romney said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” in early March.

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What’s more, Walker alluded to the fact that one of the remaining candidates may not be the nominee. “I think if it’s an open convention, it’s very likely [the nominee] would be someone who’s not currently running,” Walker said Thursday, according to madison.com.

In a speech about the ugliness of politics on Thursday, Ryan didn’t rule out an open convention. “Nothing has changed other than the perception that this is more likely to be an open convention than we thought before,” said Ryan.

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Then, Rep. Tom Cole of Oklahoma failed to rule out Ryan as a potential candidate for the nomination in an interview with C-SPAN’s “Newsmakers.” “He’s already been vetted, he’s been on a national ticket, millions of people have already voted for him,” Cole said.

Additional fun fact: Paul Ryan will also be chairing the Republican convention — which would make him a likely person to turn to if delegates can’t come to a consensus. Also, former Speaker John Boehner has endorsed Paul Ryan for president.

It’s important to note that all three men — Walker, Romney, and Ryan — have expanded their profiles within the last few weeks, possibly in an effort to drum up buzz and popularity around their names if there were to be an all-out floor fight at the convention.

Curly Haugland, a current Republican national committeeman and one of the unbound delegates, said on “The Laura Ingraham Show” that, regardless of who wins each state’s nominating contests, a candidate needs to win a majority of the delegate vote on the convention floor in order to become in the nominee. “The primaries are yesterday when it comes to how the Republican Party does business at the convention,” Haugland said.

The GOP Establishment seems to be harnessing its energy to make sure Trump doesn’t become the GOP nominee — which means that potentially, none of the remaining candidates might end up securing the nomination.