Missouri Republicans begin the process of picking convention delegates, as storm clouds gather

Missouri Republicans met Saturday to begin the crucial process of picking delegates to represent them at their party’s national convention in July.

Registered GOP voters crowded into schools, conference centers and courthouses to elect county-level party delegates. Those delegates will later attend district and statewide conventions, where they will pick the people who will cast votes at the national convention in Cleveland.

More than 200 voters turned out for the Jackson County meeting, held in Independence. They elected two “unity” slates — after deciding the delegates on the slates would not have to disclose their presidential preferences first.

Jackson County GOP chairman Mark Anthony Jones proposed the slates — one for voters from the 5th congressional district, and one for those from the 6th. He said he did not ask whether the delegates supported businessman Donald Trump or Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas before he picked them.

“We’ve not stacked this (slate) one way or another,” he told voters at the meeting.

While the voters were not asked to explicitly state their presidential choice, the meeting appeared roughly divided between supporters of Cruz and Trump. Many attendees wore stickers backing their candidates of choice.

In normal presidential election years, county-level caucuses are relatively quiet affairs, attended mostly by party officials and activists.

But many Republicans believe their national convention will be contested — that no presidential candidate will have enough pledged delegates to claim the nomination by July.

If that turns out to be the case, the real loyalties of the state’s convention delegates will be critical to the outcome. And Saturday’s county caucuses are the crucial first test of those loyalties.

Under current party rules, and because of the results of the March 15 primary, Trump automatically gets 37 Missouri national convention delegates on the first nominating ballot in Cleveland. Cruz of Texas will get 15 votes.

If the contest extends to a second ballot or more, though, delegates will be free to vote for anyone. Delegates are also free agents when voting on changes to the rules, or any challenges to the eligibility of delegates from other states.

So both presidential campaigns want to make sure their delegates will remain committed through several ballots and will vote as directed on procedural issues. The best way to ensure that was to make sure loyalists showed up and voted at Saturday’s county caucuses, when the delegate selection process began.

Missouri has 52 convention delegates. Delegates chosen Saturday will attend conventions April 30 and May 20 to elect national convention delegates by district, and statewide.

Three GOP officials — national committee members Lance Beshore and Susie Eckelkamp, and state chairman John Hancock — are automatically part of Missouri’s convention delegation. All three are pledged to Trump, the unofficial winner of the Missouri primary on March 15.

The official winner will be announced Tuesday.

The county-level caucuses turned raucous in 2012, when supporters of then-Rep. Ron Paul packed caucuses in an attempt to elect Paul loyalists to the convention. Supporters of Mitt Romney fought back, trying to make sure the presumptive nominee would have Missouri’s convention votes.

The discord during those meetings led to several changes this year designed to simplify the process. County chairmen and chairwomen were issued rules for conducting the caucuses, and many have received briefings on how to respond to disruptions.

As a result, the caucuses Saturday were relatively sedate affairs. Voters argued over platform issues in Jackson County, but there was no serious debate over delegates to the district and state conventions.

In counties with competing delegate slates — a Trump slate, for example, against a Cruz slate — the contests were more energetic.

This story was originally published April 9, 2016 at 10:03 AM with the headline "Missouri Republicans begin the process of picking convention delegates, as storm clouds gather."