Nevada GOP leaders urge unity at state convention

RENO, Nev. — Nevada Republican Party Chairman Michael McDonald urged delegates at the state GOP convention Saturday to put their fractured past behind them and unite behind Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

Trump backers feared some who opposed the billionaire when he won Nevada’s caucuses in February would try to deny him all his delegates to the national convention.

But with the majority of the 1,086 state delegates chanting “Trump, Trump, Trump,” they carried a series of key early votes at the state convention in Reno on Saturday where the single most popular theme was “anyone but” Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.

“It wasn’t so long ago that we didn’t shine so bright,” McDonald said in reference to past infighting between the Nevada GOP’s staunch conservative and more moderate wings.

“We had a division and it was well known, well documented,” he said during the daylong event at the Reno-Sparks Convention Center. “We come together today to unite — unite behind our presumptive candidate. ... It does not happen with selfish agendas.”

Nevada will send 30 delegates to the national convention in Cleveland in July based on the state’s Feb. 23 caucuses. Trump had already locked up 14 delegate votes, but his opponents subsequently ended their campaigns and released their delegates to vote for whomever they please — seven who had been dedicated to Marco Rubio, six for Ted Cruz, two for Ben Carson and one for John Kasich.

Nevada GOP National Committeewoman Diana Orrock of Clark County, who endorsed Trump last fall, was re-elected with 792 votes. Elko County GOP chairman Lee Hoffman won the race for national committeeman with 531 votes. He admitted he didn’t initially support the former reality TV star but says he now is firmly on the Trump train.

“Personally, I liked Scott Walker, then Ben Carson, then Ted Cruz,” said Hoffman, who was appointed by the state GOP executive committee to fill the open national committeeman slot on an interim basis in 2014.

“My current favorite is anybody but Hillary,” Hoffman said to cheers. “While Mr. Trump was not my first choice, he is going to be our nominee, and I support him 101 percent.”

Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval announced his support for Kasich after the Nevada caucuses and initially withheld his support for Trump before recently concluding he would support him so as to keep Clinton out of the White House. But U.S. Sen. Dean Heller is among other prominent Republicans who have suggested they may cast their vote for “none of the above.”

The Trump campaign issued a slate of preferred delegates to elect to the national convention and, during a series of votes on convention rules, held up a green “Yes” sign or a red “No” sign to signal which way Trump backers should vote.

Their side won all of those votes, including refusing to seat two Washoe County Republicans — State Assemblyman Ira Hansen and County Commissioner Jeanne Herman — who state party officials said were handing out their own slate of candidates that suggested Trump was supporting them.

The majority also voted the way the Trump crew preferred in agreeing to place limits on the size of their party platform so as to appeal to a broader base of voters in November.

Washoe County delegate Tom Dickman proposed striking the rules that were intended to streamline the platform by keeping some of the more controversial issues at bay.

“Our country is in bad shape. We all have a lot of concerns. Limiting the platform is a bad idea,” Dickman said.

But fellow Washoe County delegate Mark Deeter disagreed.

“We are going to have to reach out to a lot of independents,” Deeter said. “Every time you add something to the list, it’s really a limitation. We should be really general and precise and to the point. That’s the bottom line to winning the White House.”

The platform presented to the delegates for a vote as the convention ran into the evening was similar to those approved in the past, including support for repealing the Affordable Care Act, defending the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms as a “God given right,” and affirming the “sanctity of life” beginning at conception while opposing government funding of organizations that advocate for, or provide, abortions.

It also opposes amnesty for those who enter the U.S. illegally, opposes same-day voter registration and supports requiring proof of citizenship and a valid photo ID when voting, and urges the federal government to transfer all U.S. property in Nevada to the state unless federal use of the land is constitutionally authorized.