James Antle explains in a Washington Examiner column why delegates to this summer’s Republican National Convention are likely to face a much different experience from those who have held similar roles in recent decades.
At the 2012 Republican National Convention, members of the media received modest gift bags. The contents included a copy of Mitt Romney’s book No Apologies, a Tampa Bay Storm beer koozie and some breath mints.
Not all journalists were impressed. The website Gawker ran an unflattering headline about the GOP convention “swag bag” that cannot be printed in a family publication, though their assessment of the Democrats’ offerings was even meaner.
If there is a contested convention in Cleveland this July, delegates, at least, could fare much better. All three campaigns are going to be wooing unbound delegates for months. If the nomination vote goes beyond the first ballot, all the delegates will be fair game.
A lot of the attention has been focused on Donald Trump confidant Roger Stone’s bluster about following uncooperative delegates back to their hotel rooms. But the delegates could be in for much more favorable treatment than the headline-grabbing implied threats.
When the New York Times interviewed the aging veterans of the last contested convention, the 1976 fight between Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan, about their reentry into the fray 40 years later, many of them gave examples of special treatment the delegates received.
Ford helped people get special seating to view the Tall Ships in New York. Reagan introduced them to his Hollywood pals John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart. Ford, the sitting president of the United States, was able to top this with an invitation to an event featuring Queen Elizabeth II.
“You bring an uncommitted delegate to a dinner for the Queen of England, and it’s a fairly persuasive argument,” former Secretary of State James Baker told the Times. Baker corralled delegates for Ford at the 1976 convention.
