As GOP convention opens, MN party leaders stress unity
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UPDATED 3:45 p.m. with rules fight outcome.
Right out of the gate Monday, Minnesota's delegation to the Republican National Convention heard calls to unify behind their presidential candidate, Donald Trump, despite misgivings among some in the party.
The 38 delegates and an equal number of alternates got a breakfast pep talk from Minnesota U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer before holding a private meeting about what kind of posture the delegation should take as the four-day convention in Cleveland kicks off. Of Minnesota's delegates, eight are bound to Trump and the rest to other candidates.
Addressing delegates at their hotel 30 minutes from downtown Cleveland, Emmer railed against a narrative that Trump faces long odds in his general-election contest against Hillary Clinton, partly because party factions have been slow to rally behind Trump.
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"He got more votes than anyone in the history of the Republican presidential primaries. That should be the focus, not the division. He is bringing out people who are looking for real change," Emmer said of the New York businessman.
With one or more Supreme Court picks awaiting the next president, Emmer said "losing is not an alternative" for Republicans even if they aren't enthusiastic about their candidate.
"Folks, it's time to unify. It's time to stop pointing the finger at each other. It's time to start pointing our fingers in the same direction," Emmer added. "Let's go win this thing."
Emmer is the only one of three Republican members of Congress from Minnesota to travel to the convention.
The delegation's closed-door discussion centered on where Minnesota would come down when convention and future nominating contest rules are presented for ratification amid talk that Trump opponents might make a last-gasp play to complicate his nomination. Trump has amassed enough votes to win on the first ballot.
Some of those involved in the meeting warned about reading too much into the delegation's stance that the rules discussion should involve roll call votes rather than voice ratification. The effort to alter the process ultimately fell short, but Trump loyalists spent considerable time lobbying Minnesota's delegation and others to try to get them back down. When a voice vote was conducted, it was sharply split and outbursts followed on both sides.
A veteran Minnesota Republican predicted the party wounds would heal by fall.
"I think the discussion at the end of the day is really going to be about Hillary Clinton more than the divisions within the party," said Marty Seifert, a former state legislator and pledged a delegate for Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. "For a lot of Republicans Donald Trump will be a bitter pill to swallow. But better to swallow a bitter pill than a cyanide pill. And I think that's the general thought process behind a lot of Republicans as they look at Hillary Clinton versus Donald Trump."
Minnesota Republican Party Chairman Keith Downey said it's natural that feelings are still raw after heated primary campaign where Trump bested 16 rivals.
"Unity on the cheap, unity that's forced, unity that's contrived isn't unity," he said. "But when you have hard-fought discussions and debates and battles through primary states and conventions and the eventual winner stands up, that's when real unity can happen, when people all feel like they were heard, they had a chance to participate and you get behind the guy. That's true unity."