Never Trump forces lose rules fight on convention floor

Supporters of presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump turned back an attempt Monday to overturn the party’s rules and enact different procedures for future candidates in the party.

It isn’t clear if the anti-Trump forces could have used the vote to open up the nomination process this year. The effort was simply to vote against the convention rules as approved by the Rules committee.

The delegates were asked to approve the rules on a voice vote. When the chair ruled that the rules had passed, hundreds of anti-Trump delegates demanded a roll call vote.

A Utah delegate moved for such a vote, but the chair ruled that an “insufficient” number of states had requested a roll call. The rules say seven states needed to ask for such a vote.

The chair said nine states had filed the request, but that three withdrew. It isn’t clear if Missouri or Kansas were among the state who either submitted a roll call request or withdrew.

The floor drama was the likely last gasp of the anti-Trump forces, among them Carl Bearden, a delegate from Missouri.

“One of the things that I hope is that the grass roots members of the party would actually retain, or get control back from the party bosses,” he said.

This story was originally published July 18, 2016 at 3:56 PM with the headline "Never Trump forces lose rules fight on convention floor."