Republicans gathering in Cleveland find uncertainty and concern

Nearly 2,500 Republican National Convention delegates are now gathered here to do — what?

Nominate Donald Trump for president? Almost certainly. Ratify Gov. Mike Pence as his choice for vice president? Highly likely. Listen to speeches that bitterly criticize Democrats? Without question.

Beyond that, though, Republicans have no idea what to expect from their national convention in Cleveland over four days starting Monday.

“I don’t know. I don’t know,” said Danette Proctor, a Republican delegate from Springfield and a veteran of Missouri GOP politics. “It concerns me because we need unity.”

The unsettled nature of the Republican gathering is stunning, unprecedented in modern political history.

Political conventions are now largely pageants, designed to celebrate the presidential nominee to boost his or her prospects in the fall. The bitterness of the primary season fades as delegates and defeated candidates rally around their nominee, ready to make their case to the country.

Yet a sizable minority of Republican activists remain strongly opposed to Trump’s nomination. They’ve worked for weeks to organize opposition to the businessman and are making a final official push to deny him the prize.

That effort will almost certainly fizzle, for the same reason Trump’s opponents flamed out in the primaries — no one can settle on an alternative to the flamboyant candidate. Additionally, after a very late start, Trump’s campaign organization has worked hard over recent weeks to corral reluctant delegates and cut off any nasty dump-Trump effort on the floor.

The effect of that work was clear Thursday night, when Trump loyalists and party officials crushed a rules committee attempt to unbind delegates. The decision makes it nearly impossible for a Trump alternative to surface.

But there are several ways the anti-Trump forces could affect the convention, even if they can’t nominate an alternative.

They could walk out on pro-Trump speeches, for example, or demand floor votes that gum up the process. Delegates bound to Trump could vote against Trump’s wishes on the platform and his vice presidential pick.

They may protest. They may boo. They may turn a political commercial into a picture of discontent and disarray.

Such talk angers and worries pro-Trump delegates. “It’s just wreaking havoc,” said Mark Anthony Jones, a Republican delegate from Jackson County.

And that havoc may not be limited to delegates.

Trump’s campaign events have been marked by protests and clashes with police for months, and protesters are expected to gather in large numbers outside the Quicken Loans Arena, where Republicans will conduct their business.

Dozens of groups have applied for parade permits, and some have promised to march without permission. Some groups have sued to relax restrictions near the arena, allowing them to move protests closer to the delegates.

But the shooting of police officers in Dallas and Ohio’s relatively relaxed laws on carrying weapons have made officials in Cleveland even more nervous. They announced additional, unspecified changes to security rules near the convention site.

Washington has provided $50 million for convention security, which the city has used to obtain additional equipment and training. Outside officers will supplement the Cleveland police, putting an estimated 2,700 officers on the streets.

The city has established an RNC “tip line” for callers to warn authorities of potential violence. For the first time in memory, the Secret Service will issue separate credentials for the 15,000 reporters and technicians expected in Cleveland.

It’s possible that fears of disruption inside and outside the hall are overblown. Trump himself promises an interesting and informative meeting. “We have such a great convention planned,” he said in early July. Sports figures, entertainers and family members will be given prominent roles.

And Trump’s acceptance speech Thursday will be must-see TV.

But a vague sense of unease circles the Republican convention — an uncertainty reflective of their standard-bearer’s approach to politics.

Many Republican elected officials don’t plan to attend. Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri has said he won’t, nor will Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas. None of Missouri’s four Republican candidates for governor is going.

Lots of people still don’t know what to make of Donald Trump, including many of the convention delegates about to nominate him to the most important job in the world.

Carl Bearden, Missouri delegate

A “ghost delegate” for Trump

Sixty-year old Carl Bearden, a former speaker pro tem of the Missouri House, is leader of the Never Trump movement in the state. He’s worked to assemble like-minded delegates in an effort to open up the nomination process in Cleveland.

Yet Bearden is officially pledged as a Trump delegate. Trump won Bearden’s congressional district and state party rules require him to support the likely nominee.

Bearden won’t do it.

“If it’s a first-round vote and Trump’s the only name out there, I would not vote for him,” Bearden said.

Bearden’s status as a Trump delegate — in name only — worries the front-runner’s campaign. Some early counts suggest there could be several hundred ghost delegates for Trump, enough to force messy consideration of anti-Trump platform planks in Cleveland.

“Usually, by this time, there is an undisputed leader,” Bearden said. “That’s not the way it is this year. So I think it will be a difficult time. I hope it’s not disruptive, from the standpoint of people throwing chairs and that kind of stuff.”

Post-convention party unity seems unlikely.

“You’re going to have unhappy people, regardless of what the outcome is,” he said. “I don’t see the Republican convention ending with everybody happy.”

Mike Kuckelman, Kansas delegate

“I have to see what the options are”

Mike Kuckelman considers Trump the presumptive nominee. But the Olathe lawyer, a Marco Rubio delegate, thinks it’s possible the convention won’t rally behind Trump, forcing Kuckelman to make what he calls an historic decision.

“If released by Sen. Rubio, I will engage in a thoughtful and deliberate process,” he said.

What does Kuckelman, 52, think he would do? “I have to see what the options are,” he said.

Trump, he said, has made too many comments “that don’t sit well with me.” But Kuckelman said he can get behind the real estate mogul “if that’s the final option available to the delegates.”

Yet no one in the convention hall will know if Trump will be the nominee until the actual vote happens, he said.

Kuckelman’s GOP roots run deep. Raised in a family with Democratic parents, Kuckelman and his five siblings each decided on their own to become Republicans when they turned 18.

“We believed the Republican Party was more in line with our family and our family’s values,” he said. His parents eventually switched sides as well.

Today, his chief concern is the impact national politics will have on the life of his 17-year-old son, who will accompany him to Cleveland.

“We have to get this right,” Kuckelman said.

Mark Anthony Jones, Missouri delegate

“Havoc” possible from anti-Trump forces

Mark Anthony Jones, the chairman of the Jackson County Republican Party, sympathizes — slightly — with colleagues angry about Donald Trump.

Jones passionately supported Ron Paul in 2012, only to be swatted down by Mitt Romney regulars at the GOP convention.

“When I was at that convention, and it was a coronation, I was unhappy,” he said. “We were creating havoc. We walked out of a couple of different things. We raised hell.”

But, Jones quickly added, “none of it made a bit of difference. And I really expect that same response this time.”

Jones said he sees similarities between Trump and Paul, the libertarian, particularly on trade and foreign policy. “It’s nationalism versus globalism,” he said. “Taking care of ourselves instead of taking care of everyone else.”

Jones also brings a relatively unique perspective to the Missouri Republican delegation, and to the Trump campaign in the state. He is openly gay in a party whose platform insists on traditional marriage between a man and a woman.

There may also be a platform fight over transgender restrooms and other social issues important to more libertarian Republicans like Jones.

But Trump “is not a social issues candidate, which makes me happy,” said Jones, a Trump delegate. “Trump is the guy to bring all of that together.”

David Lightner, Kansas delegate

Trump will become more presidential

The chairman of the Olathe Republican Party is bullish on the presumptive nominee’s prospects. Any anti-Trump push at the convention will fizzle, Lighter predicted. The four-day gathering will wind up solidifying his prospects, which will only increase if Trump tones down his rhetoric.

Trump’s bombastic style has provided certain benefits, Lightner said. He’s awakened voters frustrated with President Barack Obama and the slow pace of economic recovery.

But Trump must dial it back as he moves into a one-on-one matchup with Hillary Clinton, Lightner said. If he does that, the lack of trust so many voters have in Clinton can carry Trump to victory.

And Trump can address classic GOP issues: balancing the budget, building up the military and getting conservative judges onto the U.S. Supreme Court. Those are bottom lines for Lightner, a Trump delegate and businessman who considers himself a meat-and-potatoes Republican.

“He’ll soften his rhetoric,” he said. “He’ll become more presidential.”

Danette Proctor, Missouri delegate

“I get behind the winner”

Danette Proctor, a delegate from Willard, is pledged to Sen. Ted Cruz. She’s been active in Republican politics for years and hopes her party can emerge from Cleveland with a least some semblance of unity and compromise.

“I was not a Trump person,” she said. “But Trump has won, so I get behind the winner.”

She said she has had little contact with other delegates from Missouri, so she can’t predict the level of disagreement in the state’s contingent until the convention starts. “I’m sure a dialogue will start then,” she said. She said a speaking slot for Cruz is a “big plus,” even though it isn’t clear if Cruz will endorse Trump during those remarks.

And she remains concerned Trump’s presidential campaign has fallen short of previous nominees in organization, presence and funding, if not in message.

“Trump does not have a good volunteer base down here in southwest Missouri,” she said. “That’s difficult. I’m used to having a volunteer base, or regional coordinators or something, and that’s lacking.”

That could change after a successful convention, Proctor said: “That’s all I can hope for and we come out united.”

She concedes she sounds a bit hesitant.

“We could have a hiccup,” she said. “That’s why we really don’t know what to expect.”

Mary Kay Culp, Kansas delegate

Warming to Trump, worries others won’t follow

On Wednesday morning, Culp was on the 23rd floor of a downtown Cleveland hotel when she heard people yelling and chanting. “I thought, ‘Oh my God. What’s going on? It’s happening already.’ ”

Instead of an early anti-Trump protest, Culp was hearing a mini-parade of people on the streets below demanding a higher minimum wage. But the moment shook Culp,who is executive director of the anti-abortion group Kansans for Life and a member of the GOP Platform Committee.

“You don’t know what to expect,” she said of the week ahead.

Culp is a Rubio delegate. While Trump wasn’t her first choice, she’s warming to him. Trump is saying the right things about picking conservatives for slots on the federal bench, “and that’s our single biggest issue,” she said.

While some of her friends still can’t back him, Culp said she appreciates Trump’s early support of the Republican platform. Things could unravel at the convention if polls show Trump falling too far behind Clinton, Culp said. But she doesn’t expect that.

Asked if she trusts Trump, Culp said she had no choice. “You know, I’m going to have to because I don’t trust Hillary Clinton one single bit,” she said.

Still, Culp says she still wants to look Trump in the eye at the convention and take his measure.

“If he is for our values, I think we’ll be for him,” she said.

“I’m just a little concerned because there are people out there who are as pro-life as I am and (they) are saying they’re not going to (vote for him), and that worries me.”

This story was originally published July 16, 2016 at 3:12 PM with the headline "Republicans gathering in Cleveland find uncertainty and concern."