"We have some delegates who are very new to the process, who became very involved with the Trump campaign."
Ben Proto
Most of Connecticut’s delegation arrived this weekend in Cleveland for the Republican National Convention. All are committed to Donald Trump, who won nearly 60% of the Republican vote in the state’s primary.
Ben Proto attended his first convention in the year 2000. He's a delegate from Connecticut's 3rd Congressional district, and he traveled early to Cleveland for a meeting of the Rules Committee.
WNPR’s Diane Orson caught up with Proto this weekend. He says the Rules Committee addressed several areas, including an effort to stop Trump from clinching the nomination on the first ballot, “…the binding or unbinding of delegates and the ability or inability of the delegates to vote their conscience. The Rules rejected that on the theory that the people had spoken and the people’s voices should be heard.”
WNPR's Diane Orson: Can you explain how many Connecticut delegates will be in Cleveland this week?
Ben Proto: Every state has three superdelegates. Connecticut, under the delegate allocation rules, receives 25 delegates. Those are ten delegates that are selected at large, and then each of our five Congressional districts receives three delegates, based on whoever wins the primary in each of those five Congressional districts.
Are the delegates attending this week political veterans, or are you seeing newcomers as delegates this year?
Every convention is a similar kind of mix: people who are delegates such as myself who have been delegates at previous conventions, and are longtime political veterans in Connecticut. We have some delegates who are very new to the process, who became very involved with the Trump campaign. There’s a reward at the end, and the reward in this particular case is being asked to be a delegate or an alternate to the National Convention, and coming to Cleveland, and casting a vote for the next President of the United States.
Clearly, there’s been a lot of debate within the Republican Party nationally over the presumptive GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump. Has there been much debate among Connecticut delegates?
No. The Connecticut delegation is unanimously and solidly for Donald Trump. The people who were selected were supporters of Donald Trump.
And I think when you look at the outcome of the primary in Connecticut, I can’t recall in my 30-plus years of being involved in Republican politics and Republican presidential primaries in Connecticut, any candidate who has ever come close to the percentage of the vote and the overwhelming support that Donald Trump received in Connecticut at the primary.
I think the people who were selected to be delegates understood that this was a tremendous show of support for a single candidate. All of those people who are coming to Cleveland are strongly supporting Donald Trump, and will be voting for Donald Trump the night that Connecticut casts its vote.
Do you think the delegates fairly represent and reflect Connecticut Republicans’ views this year on the nominee?
Well, I don’t think you ever have anyone who represents all, 100 percent. Obviously, Senator Cruz and Governor Kasich were on the ballot in Connecticut, and they received a percentage of votes within the party.
And I would venture to guess the same is true on the Democratic side. Bernie Sanders did very well in Connecticut, and the delegates going to Philadelphia on behalf of the Democrats are going fully in support of Hillary Clinton. I would venture to guess there’s probably more folks on the Democratic side of the aisle who are not thrilled with the Democrats’ choice than on the Republican side.
I understand we’re talking before things have really kicked off, but can you give me a sense of what’s the mood so far?
The mood here in Cleveland is very good. First and foremost, I really want to say again that the festivities haven’t started in full force, and a lot of the protests that we anticipate that we see every four years at both Republican and Democrat conventions really haven’t kicked off, although there have been some.
I do want to say that the city of Cleveland has really done an outstanding job preparing for this. We’ve been out and about over the last couple of days. There’s a very large police presence and they are very professional, very courteous men and women who are doing their work.
I sat through my Rules Committee with 112 Republicans from around the country; varied differences of opinion on things. Throughout a 15-hour session on the Rules Committee, a lot of debate on very contentious issues, and at the end of the day we did our job and now we’re moving onto do our job which will be to nominate the next President of the United States.
On a personal note, our national committeewoman Pat Longo is stepping down this year. She did not seek reelection. Pat’s been our national committeewoman for many years, tremendously well respected across the country. She’s really carried Connecticut's banner, and I think its important for Republicans and quite frankly people throughout the state of Connecticut whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat or unaffiliated, to know the work that Pat has done on behalf of the state of Connecticut making sure that Connecticut is known across the country within political circles. She will be missed.
