If Republicans face a contested convention this summer, Governor Scott Walker expects someone other than the front-runner to win the party’s presidential nomination.
In the first round of voting at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland this summer, delegates will vote for the candidate they are pledged to support based on individual state results. However, if no candidate has the 1,237 delegates need to win the nomination after that first round, delegates are free to support someone else in later rounds of voting. If that happens, Walker expects many will exercise that right to vote for another person. “If the front-runner hasn’t garnered enough votes to get the nomination outright, I think it will be somebody other than that person selected by the delegates,” Walker said during a stop in Eau Claire last week.
AUDIO: Gov. Walker on possibility of an open GOP convention (:22)
The current front-runner is Donald Trump – who leads the delegate count, but is still more than 500 short of the nomination. With Trump continuing to win states and the field just recently dwindling to three candidates, Walker said he expects the convention will end up being an open one if current trends continue.
Walker, who dropped out of the presidential race himself last fall, has not endorsed anyone and said he’s fine with there being no nominee heading into the convention, since the selection would be a transparent process with the whole world watching.
Trump recently predicted there would be riots if he comes close to the delegate count, but is denied the nomination. Walker said he doubts that would happened though. “There are other countries around the world where people are intimidated in how to vote. We shouldn’t be a country where people are intimidated in how to vote, we should vote our choice,” he argued.
Affiliate WAYY contributed to this report.