Trump delegates with 'foreign' names got fewer votes than those that sounded 'white'

(Image credit: Rhona Wise/AFP/Getty Images)

There is evidence to suggest that Donald Trump lost a handful of delegates in Illinois because his supporters weren't willing to vote for people with "foreign-sounding" names, The Cook Political Report's Dave Wasserman pointed out.

Illinois, which had its primary on Tuesday, does things a little differently than in other states:

Rather than voting for candidates, primary-goers [in Illinois] vote for a number of delegates who are pledged to candidates in their congressional district. So instead of voting for "Donald Trump," a supporter would have to vote three times for "John Smith (Trump)," "Jack Jones (Trump)," and "Frank Miller (Trump)."But what if one of those delegates was named, say, Nabi Fakroddin? That's what happened in Illinois' 6th District, where 4,000 Trump voters who supported someone named Paul Minch were unwilling to vote for Fakroddin. That allowed a John Kasich delegate to sneak into the top three. [Mediaite]

The occurrence was repeated with Trump delegate Raja Sadiq in Illinois' 13th district. Trump supporter Doug Hartmann won 31,937 votes but Sadiq only earned 24,103, allowing three Ted Cruz delegates to get ahead. Taneequa Tolbert also did worse than her peers with more "white"-sounding names, although Mediaite reports that she managed to eke into third to save Trump the delegate.

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.