Thread: Candidate wants new rules for open GOP convention

BREAKING NEWS
Candidate wants new rules for open GOP convention

• CNN hosting 3 town halls this week

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Kasich on nomination race: 'It's a bizarre process'

By Tal Kopan, CNN
Updated 10:25 PM ET, Mon April 11, 2016

Washington (CNN)Ohio Gov. John Kasichcalled the Republican presidential primary delegate process "bizarre" on Monday and said the Republican National Convention should adopt rules that would open up the nomination to more candidates.

He also reiterated his call for states to "move on" from passing so-called religious liberty laws, as well as commented on his faith and favorite pastimes during CNN's town hall moderated by Anderson Cooper, featuring Kasich's wife, Karen, and two daughters, Emma and Reese.

Asked about rival Ted Cruz's comments that the RNC should preserve a rule requiring that candidates get a majority of delegates in at least eight states -- Kasich called for an "open" convention, not a "closed" one.

READ: Kasich says he wouldn't sign NC 'bathroom' law

"We're reaching out, Anderson, all over. It's a bizarre process," he said.

Kasich said he was confident he would prevail in a contested convention in July because he's the only candidate who can beat Hillary Clinton as the Democratic nominee.

"I don't know how many rounds it's going to take, but if I'm the only one who can win in the fall, why would you pick somebody else?' Kasich said.

Convention chaos


He predicted, based on his own experience as a delegate for Ronald Reagan at a contested convention in 1976, that once delegates are seated, they'll come around to him.

"It will become a very serious, heavy matter when we get into that convention, and it's all about the delegates," said the Ohio governor, who trails both his rivals, Donald Trump and Cruz, in the delegate race.

And he drove home that he has the foreign policy experience and sensibility to beat Clinton.

"Wouldn't you rather pick someone who can defeat Hillary rather than someone who loses to her all the time?" he said.




Kasich brushed off the notion that the Republican National Convention rules committee might block him from contention for the nomination in July -- despite Cruz and Trump saying they will support a rule that requires a majority of delegates in eight states to be eligible.

READ: Trump, Kasich box out Cruz in Michigan delegation

"He spent $1 million making stuff up about me in Wisconsin, of course he would say that," Kasich said of Cruz.

He predicted that the committee will want an "open" not "closed" convention.

"I think the rules will be open, and even if they're not, I'm still going in there with significant delegates, but I don't think that's going to happen," Kasich said.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/11/politi...all/index.html

Kasich on nomination race: 'It's a bizarre process'

It's bizarre that candidates would try or even want to win a nomination through a "bizarre process" at a convention instead of elections. That seems to be the point Trump is making and rightly so.