Sen. Ted Cruz's campaign says it was "double-crossed" Saturday after the Texas lawmaker's Michigan delegates were boxed out of eight seats on committees at the upcoming GOP convention.
The Cruz campaign reportedly charged delegates for rivals Donald Trump and Ohio Gov. John Kasich teamed up to lock out Cruz .
Saul Anuzis, a former Michigan GOP chairman and Cruz delegate,
told CNN the Cruz team was "double-crossed" by Kasich's campaign, saying Kasich delegates were supposed to vote with Cruz delegates – but switched sides and voted with Trump behind closed doors Saturday afternoon.
The furor erupted as Michigan Republicans gathered to finalize their slate of 59 delegates to the Republican National Convention – and then to fill eight slots on committees governing the convention and writing the party platform.
Trump, who won the state's primary contest last month, earned 25 delegates, and Cruz and Kasich got 17 delegates each. But when it came to committee assignments, Trump delegates won five and Kasich delegates won three – leaving Cruz delegates out in the cold.
"The Kasich and Trump teams actually cut a deal and took all those slots," Wendy Day, a Cruz delegate who helped organize supporters in Michigan, tells
the Washington Post. "We couldn’t get any of them. That's fine, it’s politics, but it was interesting to see those two campaigns team up."
Anuzis tells the Post "the Trump and Kasich people stopped that and kind of had a deal and they wanted their leadership to push through their votes."
But Kasich's delegate director in Michigan, Jeff Timmer, tells CNN it was the Cruz campaign that turned its back on a deal by trying to win all eight seats.
"The Cruz campaign tried a takeover and they failed miserably," Timmer told CNN. "It backfired and they ended up with nothing. There's been all these reports about how they're out-organizing everybody. Not here."
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