SoylentNews

An Anonymous Coward writes:

With Texas Sen. Ted Cruz projected as the clear winner of Tuesday's Wisconsin GOP primary [cnbc.com] (Bernie Sanders won the Democratic side), there is an increasing likelihood that neither GOP frontrunner Donald Trump, nor the other two candidates still in the race (Cruz, and Ohio Gov. John Kasich) will arrive at the Republican convention with 1,237 delegates, i.e. a majority, needed to win the nomination on the first ballot. This would most likely result in a contested convention, the first in either major US political party since Adlai Stevenson was nominated by the Democratic Party in 1952 [bustle.com]. (The GOP came close in 1976, when incumbent President Gerald Ford arrived at the convention without a majority of delegates, but managed to secure one in time for the first ballot; this came after challenger Ronald Reagan made a tactical error by naming moderate Senator Richard Schweiker [wikipedia.org] (R-PA) as his running mate).

A contested convention "for dummies" [nytimes.com] (but helpful) piece from the NY Times, outlining the basic rules.

CNN suggests we should not be surprised if shady dealings [cnn.com] are done to pry delegates into one camp or another.

Nate Silver's analysis here [fivethirtyeight.com].

Original Submission