Voting for National Delegates in Colorado

A time for choosing...

The Colorado Republican Party holds its State Assembly on Saturday, April 9, 2016. At the assembly, delegates from around the state will elect 13 primary delegates and 13 alternates.

That gives the 618 people on the list a 2% chance of being selected a primary delegate to the national convention. It also gives the voter quite a challenge to decide.

Here’s my advice to help you winnow the field:

First throw out the 363 who are unpledged. Two simple reasons for this: either they’re trying to hide who they support (good cause to eliminate) or they haven’t made up their mind. We’re down to two candidates, not the raft we started with. If you’re an activist who hasn’t yet made up your mind, the train has left the station and you’re not on it.

Then you can eliminate the 1 Carson pledged candidates and 6 Rubio candidates. They’re on the train, but their candidates aren’t. They missed their stop.

Kasich has 11. Reality needs to sink in both for him and his supporters. There is no way he wins. Quite likely he won’t make it to the convention: he’s only won his home state and you need at least 8. If you think he’ll pick up 7 more at the rate he’s going, your choices are easy. But he won’t.

That leaves the two real contenders, Trump and Cruz. Trump has 49 pledged candidates, Cruz 188. Here’s where it gets tricky.

With 74% of the pledged delegate candidates and a good showing in the informal straw polls held on caucus night, it is likely that Cruz will sweep the 13 delegates. Trump has tacitly acknowledged that. He canceled a Friday appearance in Denver and won’t be in Colorado Springs on Saturday. Cruz will be.

If you’re on the Trump train, go for it. You can vote for almost half of his pledged candidates for whatever good it will do you.

That brings us to the Cruz candidate delegates.

The approach I’d recommend—and it really applies everywhere—is to first take stock of your own values and principles and then ask yourself, “Who do I know on this list who shares those values and principles and would vote them?”

Not all who say they are for Cruz are equal; there may even be a few spoilers in there. When the going gets tough, who will persevere? And don’t be fooled: it will get tough.

There’s a shortcut if you’re stuck. The Cruz campaign has endorsed 16 people. There are politicians on this list—but they are our true conservative brothers and sisters, most not elected to public office before 2010. It includes 4 of the top 6 conservatives in the House.

I’m not endorsing everyone on the Cruz list and there are great liberty activists running who are not on that list. My recommendations are below.

On Friday, each of Colorado’s 7 Congressional Districts will have elected 3 primaries and 3 alternates for a total of 21 national delegates and alternates. The state’s 3 remaining delegates belong to the State Party Chair, Steve House, the National Committeeman, George Leing, and National Committeewoman, Lily Nunez.

My recommendations

Definite YES

Note:

PoL Score is the Principles of Liberty score; applies only to legislators and is for the 2015 session.

Cruz List means the person is endorsed by the Colorado Cruz campaign team, Rep. Ken Buck, Chair.

UPDATED 4/8/16 2245 to reflect congressional district races.