Reince Priebus at CPAC: Odds of contested GOP convention ‘very small’

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said Friday the odds of a contested convention to decide the party’s 2016 presidential nominee are “very small” and pledged the party’s full-fledged support for the eventual nominee.

“There are 1,237 delegates needed to be the nominee of our party,” Mr. Priebus said at the 2016 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). “There are 1,744 delegates left to be distributed. We are a long way to go.”

“I would just say what I’ve always said: I think the odds of a contested convention are very small,” he said.

“Let me just clear something up for everybody,” Mr. Priebus said. “Whoever the nominee is of our party, they’re going to get the full backing and a 100 percent support of the Republican party.”

“Whether you’re for Ted Cruz, [Marco] Rubio, [John] Kasich, [Donald] Trump, they need to have a national party that has its act together, and that’s what we’re all about,” he said.

Some people set on preventing GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump from winning the nomination are advocating that Mr. Trump’s opponents take their supporters all the way to the convention in Cleveland this summer if he ends up with fewer than the 1,237 delegates required.

“There’s no way that the people are not going to decide. There’s no way that the delegates are not going to decide,” Mr. Priebus said.

“If you were at the convention, you would be bound on the first vote, and the majority of you would choose the nominee,” he said. “And whoever the majority chooses is going to be the nominee of our party. So that’s our pledge to you.”