Despite a commanding lead over his Republican presidential rivals, Donald Trump is leaving nothing to chance, as the former president’s campaign is working to change the rules to make it harder for second-place finishers to gather delegates, effectively clearing the path to secure the 2024 nomination.
Trump’s campaign team scored a major victory in California on Saturday when the state’s Republican executive committee voted in favor of distributing convention delegates based on the statewide vote as opposed to by congressional districts, which would have made it easier for a second-place finisher to remain competitive in a state with 169 delegates at stake, Salon reported.
"Similar changes have been engineered in other states after Trump's henchmen set about working the state parties some time back," wrote columnist Heather Digby Parton. "Whether it's pushing for winner-take-all or caucuses over primaries or any number of other strategies, his operation has fully wired the primaries to Trump's advantage.”
Trump’s campaign is taking these steps as a newly released New York Times/Siena College poll indicated the former president lead is widening. Trump leads Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis by a 37-point margin (54 percent to 17 percent), according to the poll.
Ken Cuccinelli, a founder of the pro-DeSantis super PAC Never Back Down, blasted the Golden State GOP’s decision, the Washington Post reports.
“Smoke-filled backrooms do not reflect the will of or benefit voters in any state. Yet across the country games are afoot to enhance the potential outcome of primary elections for one former president who half of the Republican electorate no longer wants as the party leader,” Cuccinelli said in a statement.
