For a short time, Maine was one of the states where a majority of delegates to the national GOP convention in Cleveland signed a petition to force a roll call vote on the convention rules, opening the door to a Stop Trump movement.
Supporters of the movement wanted to force the vote so they could eventually change the rules to allow delegates to vote for anyone, not necessarily who they were pledged to vote for on the first ballot.
“Maine is not playing a role in this as of right now. We are one of the states that have withdrawn. We did not have a majority of our delegates that asked for a roll call vote,” says Maine Senate Majority Leader Garret Mason, who was one of the leaders of the Ted Cruz campaign in Maine.
Mason says after some discussion, some of the delegates that had supported the roll call maneuver reconsidered. Two other states also withdrew their support for a roll call and the effort failed.
Mason says a roll call vote would not have been good for the party because Donald Trump has clearly won the nomination.
“I remain a strong supporter of Sen. Cruz. He is a beacon of hope in the conservative movement and I look forward to his continued service in the Senate,” he says. “We had a contest and Ted Cruz is no longer running for president, and we have one nominee left and it’s Donald Trump, and I plan to support him as hard as I can.”
The failure of the roll call vote maneuver takes the steam out of the Stop Trump movement.
