Mayhem breaks out at RNC after party ignores last-minute attempt to change convention rules

A majority of delegates from ten states sought to demand a floor vote over convention rules on Monday afternoon, according to Delegates Unbound, the group organizing the rebellion.

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“Despite every obstacle thrown in our way, the movement of all the stakeholders involved in this effort have gained a majority of the delegates in 10 states," said M. Dane Waters, co-founder of Delegates Unbound, in a statement. "Now we take this fight to the floor."

The vote was less about preventing Trump from becoming the official nominee, and was more about upending the convention planning and forcing the party establishment to recognize that all is not well.

“There is no convention, the highest authority of the Republican Party, until the delegates arrive and effectively create it,” Delegates Unbound said in a statement. “In the same way one Congress cannot bind a future Congress to adopt certain policies or programs, it defies all sense to suggest that the convention that creates and governs the Republican Party can somehow be bound by rules established by a previous convention."

There were three major rule changes that the group sought, the Washington Examiner reported: Unbinding delegates, creating incentives for states to hold closed primaries by awarding a delegate bonus, and undoing a new rule that gives party leadership total control over information about and among future rules committees.

"What I want is for the delegates' voice to be heard on the floor," Iowa delegate and Rules Committee member Marlys Popma told the Examiner’s Timothy P. Carney. "These are smart people on the floor. The majority of these people are conservatives. In the Rules Committee, conservatives were shut down."

In an unusual move, convention chair Reince Preibus left the stage during the attempted revolt. The convention secretary also went missing.

Rebel delegates tell me convention secretary in hiding to avoid being presented with petitions for counter rules proposal.

— David M. Drucker (@DavidMDrucker) July 18, 2016