By: Robert Eno | April 16, 2016
This afternoon, in Casper, Wyoming, Ted Cruz swept the delegate selection at the Wyoming Republican convention. The delegate selection capped off a two month process in which delegates were selected in precinct caucuses across the state of Wyoming. Cruz won 14 delegates today, and notched his fifth state win in a row. He winds up with 23 Wyoming delegates. Trump has one, Rubio one, Kasich none, and one delegate is uncommitted. The three RNC members from Wyoming go to the convention undeclared.
Cruz was the only candidate to speak to the Wyoming Convention. Sarah Palin, a top surrogate for the Trump campaign chose not to attend late last week. Cruz promised the people of Wyoming that he would end the war on coal. Wyoming is the home of the largest open-pit coal mine in North America.
Cruz also promised to return the federally owned lands of the West to the people who live in those states and vowed to appoint a Secretary of the Interior from a Western State.
Watch Cruz’s speech:
True to form, Trump cast aspersions on the straightforward Wyoming process, saying that he would have had to spend “millions of dollars” wining and dining voters in order to win. The bluster was to blunt the fact that he did not even think to turn out voters to the precinct caucuses starting in mid-February. Trump only fielded six delegate candidates out of a possible 14 on a slate at the convention.
Trump campaign fills only 6 of 14 spots on slate of potential delegates in Wyoming https://t.co/E39DV2jCm0 pic.twitter.com/q9cOmX5fKX
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) April 16, 2016
Cruz has now won five straight contests: Utah, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Colorado, and Wyoming. Since Marco Rubio left the race on the night of March 15th, Ted Cruz has dominated the delegate haul. Since March 15th, Cruz has won 143 delegates, Trump has won 66, and John Kasich has not won a single delegate.
The next contest is Tuesday in New York City.
Robert Eno is the Director of Research for Conservative Review, who breaks down the numbers and trends in politics. He is a conservative from deep blue Massachusetts but now lives in Greenville, SC. He is also a fill in radio host and appears on television. Follow him @robeno. and feel free to email him at [email protected].
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Wyoming is one of the few states that uses a multi-stage caucus spread out over a month and a half.
On March 1st, registered Republican voters caucused across the state to choose representatives for the state and county conventions where the state’s 29 Republican National Convention delegates are actually chosen.
On Saturday, March 12th, the second stage of the Wyoming caucus took place, with county representatives chosen during the March 1st caucus gathering at county conventions around the state. Of Wyoming’s 29 national delegates, 12 of them are chosen based upon Saturday’s vote.
Cruz picked up 9 of the 12 delegates up for grabs on Saturday, March 12th, with Rubio and Trump each taking one, with another unpledged to any candidate.
The remaining 17 were selected during the state convention of which Cruz won 14 and the three RNC members were undeclared.
Source material can be found at this site.
