# Can Republicans nominate someone other than Trump? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [June 8, 2016, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-republicans-nominate-someone-other-than-trump/756839 "2016-06-08T16:38:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2016, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-republicans-nominate-someone-other-than-trump/756839/21 "2016-06-08T23:54:13Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Eh, don’t be so sure. The nominee would have months to calm everyone down, and if it’s someone electable like Kasich, then he’s already got the independent vote locked up. So it will just be a matter of securing the GOP base. > > For what it’s worth, most Trump voters I’ve talked to like Kasich. Much like Sanders supporters, they may be quite pissed, but in November will support Kasich over Clinton. > > If the GOP does something extremely stupid and nominates Jeb Bush, then whatever, screw them. If you’re going to negate the will of the voters, at least pick THE BEST CANDIDATE EVUH!!! Which may not be Kasich, but it better be somebody good. I think you’re kidding yourself if you believe that Donald could be quietly shuffled offstage under the calming leadership of a man who was all but ignored in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2016, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-republicans-nominate-someone-other-than-trump/756839/22 "2016-06-09T00:03:08Z")
YOu also have to consider that the GOP might actually want those voters to go away. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2016, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-republicans-nominate-someone-other-than-trump/756839/23 "2016-06-09T00:29:27Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Eh, don’t be so sure. The nominee would have months to calm everyone down, and if it’s someone electable like Kasich, then he’s already got the independent vote locked up. So it will just be a matter of securing the GOP base. > > For what it’s worth, most Trump voters I’ve talked to like Kasich. Much like Sanders supporters, they may be quite pissed, but in November will support Kasich over Clinton. > > If the GOP does something extremely stupid and nominates Jeb Bush, then whatever, screw them. If you’re going to negate the will of the voters, at least pick THE BEST CANDIDATE EVUH!!! Which may not be Kasich, but it better be somebody good. The article [here](https://www.yahoo.com/news/talk-grows-replacing-trump-convention-000000790.html) mentions Scott Walker as a possibility. And while some Trump delegates hate him, others love him. It would make great television. Now, all Trump has to do to prevent it is to not be an asshole for a few months. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2016, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-republicans-nominate-someone-other-than-trump/756839/24 "2016-06-09T00:41:07Z")
Good luck with that. And btw, No Backsies, right? ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2016, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-republicans-nominate-someone-other-than-trump/756839/25 "2016-06-09T00:59:06Z")
After the convention, no. Both Clinton and Trump can still be stopped at their conventions. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2016, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-republicans-nominate-someone-other-than-trump/756839/26 "2016-06-09T01:04:27Z")
Do please tell us where you get that from. Certainly not Tom Eagleton. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2016, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-republicans-nominate-someone-other-than-trump/756839/27 "2016-06-09T01:07:46Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > …So it will just be a matter of securing the GOP base… Nothing to it! ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2016, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-republicans-nominate-someone-other-than-trump/756839/28 "2016-06-09T01:10:28Z")
Well he’s technically correct. The Dem superdelegates could throw it to Sanders. Both conventions could completely change the rules before voting. It’s delusional but technically correct (the best kind of correct!) ---
**Author:** ![Alley\_Dweller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alley_dweller/32/430_2.png) [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2016, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-republicans-nominate-someone-other-than-trump/756839/29 "2016-06-09T01:18:48Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > If I read [the rules of the convention](https://cdn.gop.com/docs/2012_RULES_Adopted.pdf)(pdf) correctly, there’s no such thing as a “very simple rule modification.” The rules for the 2016 convention have not been finalized yet. The Republicans have two rules committees. First there is the standing committee on rules which [met on April 21 and declined to make any rule changes](http://www.cleveland.com/rnc-2016/index.ssf/2016/04/gop_votes_against_move_to_chan.html). Next there is the convention rules committee [that will meet the week before the convention to draft the final rules](http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/274844-republican-conventions-rules-committee-plays-pivotal-role-this-year). The first order of business at the convention will be voting to adopt (or reject) the rules committee’s proposed rules. > [@](#): > > Now, there were 11 states where Trump didn’t win, but only in Wyoming, Utah and Colorado (Cruz) and Ohio (Kasich) did another candidate actually win a _majority_ of delegates. That means a stop Trump movement would have to forge some sort of coalition among Cruz, Rubio and Kasich delegates in at least four other states while holding the four anchor states just to get a motion to suspend Rule 16a up for a vote. Yes, that’s the procedure to suspend the rules after they have been adopted by the convention. I was talking about changing them in the rules committees before the convention even started. > [@](#): > > Such a motion would need a majority vote (1237) to pass. Trump has 1541 delegates right now, meaning 304 would have to defect. I just can’t accept that every non-Trump delegate plus 20% of the Trump delegates is ready to rip the convention, the election and the party itself apart to nominate. . . who, exactly? It takes a lot fewer votes to change the rules in the rules committees. Trump has been widely criticized for not being politically savvy enough to have packed the rules committee, unlike Cruz. I don’t know where the allegiances of the committee members will lie. In any case, the question was whether the Republicans could dump Trump if they wanted to. If they don’t want to, then certainly they won’t. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2016, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-republicans-nominate-someone-other-than-trump/756839/30 "2016-06-09T01:23:53Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Eh, don’t be so sure. The nominee would have months to calm everyone down, and if it’s someone electable like Kasich, then he’s already got the independent vote locked up. So it will just be a matter of securing the GOP base. > > For what it’s worth, most Trump voters I’ve talked to like Kasich. Much like Sanders supporters, they may be quite pissed, but in November will support Kasich over Clinton. > > If the GOP does something extremely stupid and nominates Jeb Bush, then whatever, screw them. If you’re going to negate the will of the voters, at least pick THE BEST CANDIDATE EVUH!!! Which may not be Kasich, but it better be somebody good. Hey, I like Kasich (or I at least dislike him less than any of the other Republicans this cycle) but, if the GOP convention were to revolt and nominate ANY candidate but Trump, you can be damn sure that every Democrat running for any office anywhere in the country would demand their Republican opponents to explain why 1) they had previously announced their support for Trump only to go back 2) explain why they chose to thwart the will of 13,300,472 good Republicans who voted for Trump in the primaries 3) explain especially to the voters in the 39 states where Trump won why that politician is specifically smarter than his own constituents, etc. etc. If Trump runs and loses, the GOP loses the White House, but at least the down-ballot candidates can run on their own records/platforms. But if the GOP were to pull a _coup de Trump_, they’d bring the fury of all the “all politics is rigged” voters down on them for years and any Republican who was even tangentially connected to the effort would be radioactive for the rest of his/her career. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2016, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-republicans-nominate-someone-other-than-trump/756839/31 "2016-06-09T01:26:25Z")
I don’t think it would be anywhere close to that bad. And you know how you answer those questions? “Hey, look over there! It’s our nominee, John Kasich! Isn’t he wonderful?” ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2016, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-republicans-nominate-someone-other-than-trump/756839/32 "2016-06-09T01:48:00Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > I don’t think it would be anywhere close to that bad. And you know how you answer those questions? “Hey, look over there! It’s our nominee, John Kasich! Isn’t he wonderful?” I think you vastly overestimate Kasich’s appeal. He is still a right wing Republican. Moderates may have said “Of all the Republican candidates, Kasich’s the least batshit crazy” and you’re hearing that as “We’d vote for him if he was nominated”. ---
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2016, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-republicans-nominate-someone-other-than-trump/756839/33 "2016-06-09T01:48:53Z")
Man, Kasich has all the charisma of a bowl of warm chlamydia. No one is going to look over there, not while Donald lights the podium on fire and that thing on his head rears up and begins its war dance. ---
**Author:** ![DerekMichaels00](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f14d63/32.png) [@DerekMichaels00](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DerekMichaels00)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2016, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-republicans-nominate-someone-other-than-trump/756839/34 "2016-06-09T01:54:58Z")
they could, but then they’d probably have a splinter breakaway party and not only would Hillary still win, but GOP congressional seats would be lost to the Dems and the breakaway party (maybe called the Workers’ Party, the Sovereignty Party, the National Party, idk). More than would be lost with Trump on the GOP ticket. Trump is the GOP nominee, short of lightning or other things striking. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2016, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-republicans-nominate-someone-other-than-trump/756839/35 "2016-06-09T03:24:51Z")
There won’t be a breakaway party because this movement is all about one man. There have been no “Trumpists” nominated for Senate or House. Much as Trump has failed to get delegates loyal to him nominated, he’s also failed to cultivate allies among insurgent Congressional candidates. Once the head is chopped off, the body of this movement dies. Or at least goes back to being disaffected. ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2016, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-republicans-nominate-someone-other-than-trump/756839/36 "2016-06-09T03:43:28Z")
As I see it, if Trump loses and the GOP leaves the primary process the same, the same thing will happen in 2020. The loudest cretin who appeals to the lowest common denominator and sucks up the most media attention will get the biggest share of the vote in the primaries, even if they are far short of 50 percent. One way the GOP could prevent this is to change to preferential / instant run off voting in primaries. Under this system, presumably a lot of the other candidates would have asked voters to put Trump dead last in preferences, so even if he got the highest percentage of number 1’s he could still lose after preferences were allocated. Only thing is, having preferential voting in primaries would almost certainly lead voters to ask why they shouldn’t have that in the general as well, which would NOT be in the GOP’s interest. What else could they realistically do to make sure that there is never another Trump as chosen candidate? ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2016, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-republicans-nominate-someone-other-than-trump/756839/37 "2016-06-09T04:06:31Z")
> [@coremelt](#): > > One way the GOP could prevent this is to change to preferential / instant run off voting in primaries. Primaries are held by states, not by parties. What incentive would a Democratic legislature have to help the GOP avoid another Trump? > [@coremelt](#): > > Under this system, presumably a lot of the other candidates would have asked voters to put Trump dead last in preferences, so even if he got the highest percentage of number 1’s he could still lose after preferences were allocated. They would have asked for it, but I don’t know that they would have gotten it. IIRC Trump was usually the most popular second choice in polling, even among supporters of the candidates that were the Anti-Trump of the month. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2016, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-republicans-nominate-someone-other-than-trump/756839/38 "2016-06-09T04:08:44Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > The article [here](https://www.yahoo.com/news/talk-grows-replacing-trump-convention-000000790.html) mentions Scott Walker as a possibility. Take my gov, please. \ ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2016, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-republicans-nominate-someone-other-than-trump/756839/39 "2016-06-09T05:07:48Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > I don’t think it would be anywhere close to that bad. And you know how you answer those questions? “Hey, look over there! It’s our nominee, John Kasich! Isn’t he wonderful?” You planning on muzzling Trump while this happens? What are they going to do when he tweets that his nomination was stolen and that his supporters should write him in or stay home. Not to mention the loyal Trump supporters hitting the turncoats on the convention floor. ---
**Author:** ![DerekMichaels00](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f14d63/32.png) [@DerekMichaels00](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DerekMichaels00)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2016, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-republicans-nominate-someone-other-than-trump/756839/40 "2016-06-09T05:22:19Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > There won’t be a breakaway party because this movement is all about one man. There have been no “Trumpists” nominated for Senate or House. Much as Trump has failed to get delegates loyal to him nominated, he’s also failed to cultivate allies among insurgent Congressional candidates. > > Once the head is chopped off, the body of this movement dies. Or at least goes back to being disaffected. I beg to differ; Trump has awakened the Pat Buchanan wing of the GOP that many thought died in 2000 when he ultimately ran on another party ticket. It may not run nationally, but it could probably run locally in enough congressional districts to make life difficult for the GOP, given the fissure of NAFTA, isolationism, etc. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-republicans-nominate-someone-other-than-trump/756839.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-republicans-nominate-someone-other-than-trump/756839.md?page=3)