Efforts to prevent Donald Trump from receiving the Republican presidential nomination are intensifying, with a second nationwide conference call discussing details of the issue in the past four days,
The Hill reports.
Some 1,000 Republicans took part in the call Sunday night, including some 250 who will be delegates at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland next month. These numbers reportedly mark a sharp increase from the approximately 50 people who took part in the first conversation a few days ago.
ABC News reported that organizers encouraged those participating to mount a grassroots campaign through letter writing and talk radio to build up the idea of allowing delegates to vote for whoever they want at the convention, thus allowing someone else other than Trump to be nominated.
However, to achieve the goal would be unprecedented and faces many obstacles.
The main focus of the anti-Trump effort is convincing the Rules Committee at the convention to pass a resolution that would permit delegates to vote for whoever they want, which would mean the rule change would then go to the floor for a vote of approval.
Those backing the effort say
their strategy is to prepare the groundwork now so there is a real option to choose someone else in case Trump's poll numbers continue to plummet.
Rick Wilson, a "Never Trump" leader told CNN that "By the time we get to [the convention], you will see Hillary Clinton has a 15-point lead and Donald Trump will have said more crazy [stuff]. By that point you will have delegates say 'Hey, this is a convention, not a suicide pact.'"
But others dismiss the anti-Trump movement, saying it represents only a handful of people and that there is so far no sign that a significant number of delegates are considering changing their vote.
One such skeptic was RNC spokesman Sean Spicer, who told CNN: "I've also heard about Area 51, I've heard about Elvis sightings, I've heard a lot of things. The extent of this effort is a bunch of random people tweeting about it, full stop."
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