Eryn Brennan
In Motion Staff Writer
Slowly but surely, the primary season is starting to wind down and that means it’s almost convention time. At the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, a candidate will officially be nominated to represent their party in the general election.
A lot has been said of the possibility that there will be a contested Republican National Convention. Many have argued that none of the three remaining candidates will get the necessary amount of delegates needed to secure the nomination.
If that were to happen, Dr. T. Wayne Bailey, the Volusia County Democratic Party’s state committeeman and a professor of political science at Stetson University, explained that, “If there is not a majority, then it becomes an open convention and the delegates that are pledged to vote for a certain candidate are released at some point where they can vote for whomever they please.”
On the possibility of a contested DNC, Dr. Bailey said, “It could happen, but most likely it’s less likely to happen with the Democrats than with the Republicans.”
If you ask the Volusia County Republican Party’s chairman, Tony Ledbetter, however, there won’t be a contested RNC.
“The only people talking and pushing the idea that there will be a contested convention are your more establishment-type Republicans who don’t like the two choices that they have or it’s the news media that wants to keep this idea stirred up because it keeps the people stirred up and it keeps the people watching their programs and it keeps their ratings high,” he said.
He went on to explain that, according to the Republican National Committee’s rules for this year’s RNC, rule number 40 says that to be the nominee, a candidate must win the majority of delegates in at least eight states.
It’s important to note that the committee can make changes to the rules before the convention, although Ledbetter doesn’t believe that’s a scenario that will come to fruition.
Contested or not, both conventions will be interesting to watch, partly because if things don’t go Donald Trump’s way, he almost definitely won’t be going quietly, but also because both the Democrats and Republicans will be making their cases for why their party should win the White House on Nov 8. For those who still aren’t sure which party is most in line with their beliefs, the conventions are a great way to find out.
“The convention actually is one way of determining the direction of public policies. For example, the platform of the two parties students should study because they affect their interests, their concerns, their priorities,” said Dr. Bailey.
The Democratic National Convention will be held in Philadelphia July 25-28 and the Republican National Convention will be held in Cleveland July 18-21.