Trump Backers Protest Colorado Vote
DENVER (AP) — Donald Trump's backers on Friday demanded that the Colorado Republican Party reverse the results of caucuses that led to Trump getting shut out of Colorado delegates as the billionaire GOP presidential front-runner kept the focus on what he contended was a rigged process that shuts out most voters.
More than 100 Trump supporters rallied at the state capitol to complain about the results of Colorado's Republican presidential nominating process, which began on March 1 with thousands of local caucuses and culminated with a state convention last week. The state party eliminated a poll that would have shown who caucus-goers supported for president, so some had to vote on delegates to the state and other gatherings without knowing which candidate they supported. In the end, Cruz swept the state and Trump did not compete.
Trump has been complaining ever since his loss was finalized on April 9. He publicized the Colorado protest on Twitter and mentioned it in a Wall Street Journal op-ed contending that voters were getting shut out of the delegate hunt.
The significance of that hunt is that Trump needs 1,237 delegates to lock down the presidential nomination at July's Republican National Convention in Cleveland. That task is harder without the 34 Colorado delegates won by Cruz.
Trump supporters said Colorado's delegates should be released from their pledges to back Cruz and instead be required to support whoever wins a new presidential straw poll.
"I believed myself to be a Republican until last Saturday," Jim Sutter said. "Guess what happened last Saturday? They took away my vote!"
The state party has said the process was simple and transparent and that the results should stand.
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