A single word could stop Donald Trump from becoming the Republican nominee


For all intents and purposes, Donald Trump is the Republican nominee — he only has about 100 delegates to go before he hits the required 1,237, and no one is left standing in his way. But everyone ought to hold onto their horses for just one more minute because, as The New York Times writes, the Republican convention is "essentially a living body, with rules and procedures that can be modified or discarded to suit the desires of the delegates."
And there are a lot of people out there who do not like one Mr. Trump.
While an actual upset is extremely unlikely, one rules expert anonymously explained to the Times a hypothetical way to give other candidates a fighting chance at robbing Trump of the nomination. It involves just a single word: "supermajority."
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Mr. Trump could be stopped with just a single-word change requiring the nominee to receive a supermajority of votes at the convention rather than the majority currently required. Mr. Trump, after all, had floated changing majority to plurality when it was not clear he would win the 1,237 delegates he needed. [The New York Times]
There are other ways the convention could throw a wild card, including a rule Curly Haugland of North Dakota said he is going to propose, which involves allowing any candidate with one delegate to be entered into the nomination. That would bring back Marco Rubio, John Kasich, Jeb Bush, and Ben Carson, in addition to Ted Cruz — and of course, every vote for any of them is a vote away from Trump.
Read more about the loopholes of the Republican convention at The New York Times.
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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.
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