Donald Trump: Brokered convention would spur riots
Republican front-runner Donald Trump predicted Wednesday that his supporters will take to the streets if the GOP nominee is chosen through a brokered convention, rather than through the primary voting process.
"I think you'd have riots. I think you'd have riots," Trump said Wednesday on CNN. "I'm representing a tremendous many, many millions of people."
Trump won four out of five primaries on Tuesday night, giving him his biggest delegate lead yet. However, John Kasich won the 66 delegates from his home state of Ohio, slowing down Trump's march to the 1,237 needed to secure the nomination. With both Kasich and Ted Cruz determined to stay in the race until the Republican National Convention this summer, it's possible no candidate could win 1,237, leading to a brokered convention.
At a contested convention, delegates submit ballots until someone wins a majority. There can be multiple rounds of voting. In the first round most delegates are bound by the results of their state's primaries and caucuses. Once you get into additional rounds, delegates no longer have those obligations and could even throw their support behind someone who never officially entered the race.
"It's not necessarily a bad thing," RNC chairman Reince Priebus said on CBS This Morning on Wednesday.