RNC Rules Committee, 2016

2016 Republican National Convention

Date July 18-21, 2016 Location Cleveland, Ohio

Candidates President Donald Trump Vice President Mike Pence

Delegates

Calendar and delegate rules overview • Types of delegates • Delegate rules by state • State election law and delegates • Correll v. Herring • Delegates by state

Convention 2016 Convention Rules • Rule 12 • Rule 16 • Rule 40 • Conscience clause • Brokered conventions • RNC Rules Committee • Platform and Platform Committee • RNC Standing Committee on Rules • Republican National Committee

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The July 14 meeting of the 2016 Rules Committee.
See also: The GOP establishment and Trump embrace and Movement to unbind the delegates comes up one short.

The generally-obscure Republican Rules Committee played a more prominent role than usual in the GOP's 2016 nominating process as it grabbed headlines and took center stage in the fight between NeverTrump and pro-Trump Republicans. But what exactly is the Rules Committee? What does it do? Who can serve on it? And what was its impact on 2016?

What is the Rules Committee and what does it do?

The Rules Committee crafts the rules that govern the Republican Party, including the rules that govern the Republican National Committee, the Republican presidential primary process, and the Republican National Convention, where the party formally nominates its candidates for president and vice president.

The committee meets every four years and formally begins its deliberations the week before the party's national convention begins. On the first day of the convention, it proposes a rules package to the convention’s delegates, who, in turn, are responsible for approving the proposed rules by a majority vote or sending them back to the Rules Committee for revision.^[1] There were 2,472 delegates at the 2016 convention.

The convention-specific rules (26-42 in the 2012 edition) that the committee crafts apply specifically to that year’s convention.^[2] For the four years that follow, those rules are considered “temporary rules.” The temporary rules are sent to the following convention’s committee 30 days prior to the date of the convention itself along with a list of changes to the rules recommended by the Republican National Committee’s Standing Committee on Rules. Only the convention Rules Committee has the authority to set convention rules, and it has the power to decide for itself whether or not to adopt the changes recommended by the RNC’s Standing Committee on Rules.

The Rules Committee also sets the rules that dictate the internal workings of the Republican National Committee as well as the rules that govern the party's nominating process.

The full name of the Rules Committee is the Convention Committee on Rules and Order of Business (we use Rules Committee throughout this article for the sake of brevity). It is one of four major committees that holds meetings at the Republicans’ quadrennial conventions. The other three are the Credentials Committee, the Platform Committee, and the Permanent Organization Committee.

Prior to 2012, only the Rules Committee could write rules for the Republican Party. At the 2012 national convention in Tampa, however, the Rules Committee amended Rule 12, which allowed the Republican National Committee to make changes to rules 1-11 and 13-25. Rule 12 requires any rule changes to first be approved by the Standing Committee on Rules and then to be a approved by a three-fourths majority of all members of the Republican National Committee. The 2012 change to Rule 12 limited the timeline for proposing amendments to the rules to a window that closed on September 30, 2014. The committee re-approved Rule 12 at the 2016 meeting.

Who serves on the Rules Committee?

The Rules Committee consists of 112 Republican delegates. Each state, territory, and Washington, D.C. has one male delegate and one female delegate who sit on the committee. The delegates who serve on the committee are elected at state conventions in the Spring. The Republican National Chairman has the responsibility of appointing from amongst the 112 committee members a chair and co-chair of the committee.^[3] RNC Chairman Reince Priebus appointed Enid Mickelsen of Utah and Ron Kaufman of Massachusetts as chair and co-chair of the committee on June 17, 2016.^[4] A running list of known members can be found below.

The Republican National Committee and the presidential candidates themselves do not play any official role in the selection or election of the committee members, though more than 40 rules committee members in 2016 were members of the Republican National Committee.^[3]

2016 Rules Committee members

The following individuals served on the 2016 Rules Committee:^[5]

• Enid Mickelsen (Chair)
• Ron Kaufman (Co-chair)

The Rules Committee and the 2016 Republican National Convention

See also: The GOP establishment and Trump embrace

That the Rules Committee would have some impact on the 2016 national convention was a given—after all, it drafted the convention's rules. But throughout the contentious 2016 nominating season, several media outlets and Republican insiders noted that the Rules Committee's impact might be more noticeable than usual.

Early in the 2016 primary season, for example, some suggested that the committee might create rules to the benefit of candidates like Ted Cruz or John Kasich, who trailed front-runner Donald Trump in the delegate count throughout March and April, or it could pursue rules that benefit Trump and place Cruz and Kasich at a disadvantage. A third possibility was that the committee could create rules that could lay the ground for the nomination of a dark-horse candidate like House Speaker Paul Ryan or 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney.

Speculation over the committee's potential impact on the convention only continued after Trump gathered enough delegates to secure the nomination in May 2016. A movement emerged within the party to use the rules to "unbind" the delegates to the convention, with many of the movement's members focused on denying Trump the party's nomination. On top of this, party insiders and rules committee members began openly discussing other potential changes to the rules to reshape the nuances of the party's nominating system and the Republican National Committee's internal power structure.

July 14 meeting and July 18 convention business session

The rules package that the committee produced in July 2016 ultimately worked to the advantage of the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee. It rejected a proposal to unbind the delegates, tightened up the rules on binding, and allowed the RNC to amend rules in between the 2016 and 2020 conventions.

The committee met on July 14, 2016, for a marathon session that ran from 8:00 am in the morning until 11:31 pm, with only a brief recess in the late morning/early afternoon. A second session was scheduled for July 15, but—despite protests from some committee members and audible groans from the press area—the committee voted in favor of completing its work in a single session.

The rules package was approved by the convention delegates on July 18, 2016. Read more about how events at the convention unfolded here.

Below are some of the key highlights from the July 14 meeting along with a number of amendments and rules that were circulated prior to the committee meeting but did not make it to the floor.

Bound or unbound?

See also: Rule 16 and its impact on the 2016 Republican National Convention

Late in the evening of July 14, 2016, the Rules Committee tackled the thorny question of whether delegates to the convention are to be bound to a candidate based on the results of their state's primary election or caucus. Rule 16 of the 2012 version of the rules required all states using presidential preference polls to allocate and bind delegates in accordance with the poll's results. But some called the validity of that rule, as it applies to the 2016 convention, into question. For instance, Curly Haugland, an RNC member from North Dakota who was elected to serve on the Rules Committee in 2016, has stated that the delegates are already unbound. "There is no connection between primaries and the actual convention. When the convention convenes, the delegates adopt their own rules which haven't been adopted yet, but they're typically the same as the rules from the previous cycle with a few minor tweaks. But a long-standing tradition in the Republican Party that began in 1880 or earlier is the fact that all delegates to the national convention are free to vote their conscience," Haugland told NPR in April 2016.^[7]

Leading up to the July 14 meeting, many Republican insiders had expressed reservations about Haugland's reading of the rules, but his ideas gained a substantial amount of traction nonetheless.^[8] In June 2016, some Republicans even began openly pushing for changes to the rules that would make it clear that delegates can vote their conscience. Guy Short, a member of the 2016 Rules Committee from Colorado, declared his intentions to propose a "conscience clause" that would allow delegates to vote for a different candidate if the candidate to whom they were bound violates their core beliefs.^[9] The idea of a conscience clause was being backed by groups like Free the Delegates, a group founded by another Colorado delegate and Rules Committee member named Kendal Unruh, who began circulating a draft of a proposed conscience rule in June. Other Republicans, such as former Jeb Bush spokesman Tim Miller, had voiced similar sentiments. "The RNC Rules Committee should amend the rules to allow each delegate to make an objection of conscience to Trump on the first ballot," Miller tweeted on June 7, 2016.^[10]

At the meeting on July 14, the committee overwhelmingly supported the notion of binding the delegates based on their state's primary or caucus results. A proposed conscience amendment—offered up by Unruh—failed in a voice vote. In addition, amendments were added to Rules 37 and 38—both offered by Jordan Ross of Nevada—stating, "Nothing in this rule shall be construed to prohibit the binding of delegates pursuant to Rule No. 16(a)." Some delegates, such as Haugland, had previously argued that those rules could be—and historically have been—used to allow delegates to vote their conscience.

Unruh's proposed amendment to Rule 38 (left) and Ross' proposed amendment to Rule 37 (right).

Shortly after Unruh's conscience amendment was defeated, Paul Manafort, the chairman of Trump's campaign, tweeted, "Anti-Trump people get crushed at Rules Committee. It was never in doubt: Convention will honor will of people & nominate @realdonaldtrump."^[11]

Rule 40

See also Rule 40 and its impact on the 2016 Republican National Convention

A key example of the impact that the Rules Committee can have on conventions can be seen in the modification of Rule 40(b) at the 2012 convention in Tampa. In 2008, the Rules Committee created a rule called Rule 40(b) that required candidates for the Republican nomination for president to be able to demonstrate the support of a plurality of delegates from at least five individual states in order to be considered for the Republication nomination for president at the 2008 Republican National Convention and to receive a nomination speech. At the 2012 convention, however, the Rules Committee changed “plurality” to “majority” and raised the state threshold from five to eight. Experts argue that the committee changed the rule, primarily, to prevent Ron Paul from appearing on the nominating ballot and receiving a nomination speech, which, in turn, helped project an image of a unified Republican Party heading into the 2012 general election.

At the meeting of the 2016 Rules Committee on July 14, Steve King of Wisconsin offered a change to Rule 40(b), which he described as a "unifying" amendment after a meeting filled with clashes between pro and anti-Trump committee members. “I’d like to think this kind of amendment can bring us together,” said King. The amendment proposed to change the state threshold back to "five states" for the 2020 nominating season and changed "majority" back to "plurality" but leaves the 2012 language in place for 2016. It passed by voice vote. The significance of all of this is that the 2012 version of Rule 40 remained in place for the 2016 convention and only Trump was eligible to have his name placed in contention since he was the only candidate to win majorities in at least eight states (Cruz won majorities in seven state, though support from unbound delegates in North Dakota could potentially have brought him to eight). In 2020, assuming the 2020 rules committee doesn't rewrite the rule, Rule 40 would return the state threshold back to five, which some observers believe could make the 2020 Republican nominating season friendlier to more conservative candidates.

Closed primaries

See also: Closed primary

Washington state committee member Graham Hunt proposed an amendment that encouraged states to hold closed primaries by rewarding them with more at-large delegates. The amendment was backed by conservatives such as Ken Cuccinelli, a supporter of Ted Cruz. The amendment failed 32-73, which left open the possibility of a minority report on the convention floor (minority reports require the support of 28 rules committee members). No report, however, was offered.

The addition of such a rule, some have argued, would have benefited more conservative-leaning candidates by potentially limiting the involvement of Independents and Democrats in the 2020 Republican primary process. Throughout the 2016 primary season, Donald Trump benefited from primaries and caucuses that allowed non-Republicans to participate. Opponents of the amendment argued that open primaries have allowed the Republican Party to expand its base and attract new supporters.

Temporary study committee

An amendment to Rule 10 created a "temporary Committee on the Presidential Nominating Process to review the rules governing the nomination of the Republican Party's presidential nominee." The rule was adopted by the committee and included in the rules package passed by the convention body on July 18, 2016. The full text reads as follows:

Committee members' identities and contact information

Missouri committee member Harvey Tettlebaum proposed adding a new rule—number 43—that would have required the names and contact information of future Rules Committee members to be kept confidential. The text of the proposed rule stated, "The names and contact information of delegate members of the Convention Rules Committee shall be kept confidential. The RNC shall create a system by which the public may contact the designated Committeeman or Committeewoman by state that permits the delegate members to retrieve those messages."

Tettlebaum cited the numerous emails and—in some cases—threats that committee members received prior the convention as his reasoning for proposing the amendment.

Some committee members, however, objected to Tettlebaum's proposal, and the rule was rewritten and added to Rule 41. The final version did not require the names of the committee members to be kept confidential. The amendment reads as follows:

Ban on lobbyists

Maine delegate MaryAnne Kinney introduced an amendment banning registered lobbyists from serving as members of the Republican National Committee. Supporters of the amendment stressed its alignment with Donald Trump's stance on lobbyists, while opponents argued that it was excessively restrictive and could have unintended consequences. Jordan Ross of Nevada noted, "It’s a crude instrument, it doesn’t address the problem, and don’t even get me started with where this is on states’ rights."^[16] California committee member Harmeet Dhillon said, "Banning people from participating in politics because of their chosen profession is un-American. Once we single out lobbyists, we’re looking at singling out other potential disfavored professions. Such as plaintiffs lawyers, such as used car salesman … such as farmers people don’t like." The amendment was defeated in a voice vote.

Rule 12

See also: Rule 12 and the 2016 Republican National Convention

Historically, the convention Rules Committee has held the sole authority—with the approval of national convention delegates—for changing the Rules of the Republican Party. This changed in 2008 and 2012 when the Rules Committee authorized the Republican National Committee to make changes to the rules in between the national conventions. In 2008, the Rules Committee amended Rule 10 to allow the RNC to make slight changes to the timing of primaries and caucuses in the 2012 nominating cycle. Then, in 2012, the committee granted the RNC wider powers in the form of Rule 12 to amend rules 1-11 and 13-25 between the time of the convention's conclusion and September 30, 2014. Rule 12 was controversial from the time it was proposed. Backed by members of the RNC and supporters of then-2012 presumptive nominee Mitt Romney, Rule 12 was viewed by many national delegates and party activists as a “power grab” by the RNC and as “centralization."^[17]

On July 14, 2016, Morton Blackwell—one Rule 12's chief opponents—introduced an amendment at the committee meeting in Cleveland to "strike [Rule 12] in its entirety" from the Rules of the Republican Party, calling it the "worst rules change ever inserted into our party rules." Debate on the amendment was heated. Gwen Bowen, a rules member from Louisiana, called Rule 12 a "power grab." Mike Lee, a U.S. Senator and rules member from Utah, backed the amendment and expressed a concern that the rule represented an "accumulation of power." But many rules committee members supported keeping the rule. Bruce Ash of Arizona—who called Blackwell one of his heroes—said that Rule 12 was a "tool used for good." Steve Munisteri, a rules member from Texas, called it a “mechanism for dealing with an extraordinary circumstance” and “common sense." Massachusetts committee member Vincent DeVito added that Rule 12 had been “negotiated thoughtfully” through a “thoughtful process.”

After roughly thirty minutes of debate, the amendment failed, 23 to 86. Moments later, while debating a different rule, Blackwell called the committee's rejection of the amendment "truly an outrage."

Vice President

A proposal to change the manner in which the party's vice presidential candidate is selected was discussed prior to the July 14 meeting, but no amendment or rule was ever offered.

The convention delegates have traditionally left the selection of the vice presidential nominee up to the party's presidential candidate. On July 9, 2016, however, members of a group called Free the Delegates, who opposed Donald Trump, began circulating a proposed rule change that would have stripped the presidential nominee's authority to select a running mate. The rule change would have added to Rule 40(b), "The preference of any candidate seeking nomination for president of the United States shall have no bearing upon the submission of names for nomination for vice president of the United States nor the recording of votes for the same." It also would have removed from Rule 40(a) the following language: "provided, however, that if there is only one candidate for nomination for Vice President of the United States who has demonstrated the support required by paragraph (b) of this rule, a motion to nominate for such office by acclamation shall be in order and no calling of the roll with respect to such office shall be required." Finally, the state threshold in Rule 40(b) for the vice presidential nominee would have been lowered from eight to three. A source associated with the proposed rule change told BuzzFeed that a three-state threshold would be "high enough to weed out crazy people, while low enough to let a few states come to terms." That same source described the rule change as the "arranged marriage option."^[18]

No rules changes

See also: Solomon Yue

There was some speculation that the Rules Committee would actually have no impact on the convention whatsoever. In late June, Solomon Yue, a member of the Rules Committee and a national committeeman from Oregon, released a draft of a rule he intended to propose at the convention. The rule would prevent any rules changes made by the convention rules committee from taking effect until after the convention, essentially preventing the Rules Committee from having any impact on the 2016 convention's proceedings and outcome. The circulated amendment read as follows:^[19]

Regarding his proposed rule, Yue stated, "[t]his proposal would take politics out of the rulemaking process, and focus on unity so we could defeat Hillary Clinton in November."^[20]

At the July meeting, however, the rule was never formally offered.

PDF of rules

Below is the rules package proposed by the 2016 Rules Committee and approved by the 2016 Republican National Convention.

See also: Republican National Convention rules, 2016

See also

• Republican National Committee
• Republican National Convention rules, 2012
• Republican National Convention, 2016
• Rule 40 and its impact on the 2016 Republican National Convention
• Rule 16 and its impact on the 2016 Republican National Convention
• RNC Standing Committee on Rules

Footnotes

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