Revealed: Trump's Plan to Stop a Contested Convention

There's a lot of talk about the possibility of a contested convention. In a contested convention, no presumptive nominee exists because no candidate garners a majority of the delegates on the first ballot. Parties typically try to avoid having a contested convention aka a brokered convention because this will hurt their primary candidate by having a divided party, making it unlikely that their candidate will succeed in the general election. This is why political parties generally try to avoid a contested convention. If however If the race gets to the convention a deadlock would favor campaigns known for on-the-ground efficiency over those that aren't.


Trump publicly dismisses talk of a battle in Cleveland, he is quietly assembling a team of seasoned operatives to manage a contested convention. Their strategy, NBC has learned, is to convert delegates in the crucial 40 days between the end of the primaries and the convention - while girding for a floor fight in Cleveland if necessary. The team includes Trump's general counsel, former FEC commissioner Don McGahn, former Carson aides such as Jason Osborne, who handled floor operations at past conventions, and Ed Brookover, a former RNC political director with deep ties to Washington Republicans.