Trump protests over 'crooked deal' in Colorado after Cruz win

Tycoon says system, with no presidential preference vote, is ‘dirty’, but critics cite a failure to reach grassroots activists

Donald Trump has cried foul and alleged that he was the victim of “a crooked deal” after the Republican front runner lost all 34 of Colorado’s delegates to Ted Cruz over the weekend.

In a campaign rally in Albany, New York, on Monday as well as a series of tweets and an interview with Fox News, Trump repeatedly claimed that the process in Colorado was corrupt.

“We found out in Colorado this is not a democracy like we’re supposed to have,” he complained to a crowd of more than 10,000 in Albany, labeling the Republican primary process “a rigged, disgusting, dirty system”.

Trump had previously made this argument in a series of tweets on Sunday night, alleging “the people of Colorado had their vote taken away from them by the phony politicians. Biggest story in politics. This will not be allowed!”

Trump also claimed the Cruz campaign bribed voters, tweeting: “I win a state in votes and then get non-representative delegates because they are offered all sorts of goodies by Cruz campaign. Bad system!” This echoed the accusation of Trump’s new convention manager, Paul Mana fort, who accused Cruz of engaging in “Gestapo tactics” in an interview on Sunday.

Trump is campaigning heavily in the state of New York in hopes of sweeping all 95 of his home state’s delegates. To do so, Trump needs to get over 50% of the vote statewide and each of the state’s 27 congressional districts. Currently, the real estate mogul is polling well over 50% in the state and has the support of much of its Republican infrastructure. However, he faces fierce competition both from Cruz and John Kasich.

Which issue do you want US election candidates to discuss?

 Read more

In a televised town hall rally on Monday, Kasich insisted “we’re doing pretty well in New York” and struck a comparatively moderate note by condemning a law recently passed in Mississippi that allowed business owners to discriminate against gay couples if their existence conflicts with “sincerely held religious beliefs or moral convictions”.

Cruz, who has been trying to appeal to Orthodox Jews in New York, was out of the state on Monday. Instead, the Texas senator, who appeared at the spring meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition in Las Vegas on Saturday, made a quick campaign trip to California to announce a number of endorsements there. Cruz will return to New York later in the week for campaign events as well as an appearance on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.

Democrats are also going back and forth in New York. Hillary Clinton, who has a narrow lead over Bernie Sanders in the state, continued to attack her rival on gun control while Sanders criticized the former secretary of state yet again for her ties to Wall Street.

The accusations from Trump over the Colorado result are rooted in it being one of the few states not to hold any type of presidential preference vote where voters can register their opinion in the Republican primary race. This was a change made in August 2015 in an attempt to give grassroots Republicans increased power.

Instead, delegates are elected in a system similar to the Iowa caucuses, where Republicans in each precinct elect representatives to county conventions. Each county convention then elects representatives to district and state conventions, where delegates to the Republican national convention (RNC) are chosen.

This system culminated in Colorado on Sunday when roughly 3,900 Republicans meeting in a hockey arena in Colorado Springs elected 13 delegates pledged to Cruz for the RNC in Cleveland. Previously, Cruz had won a total of 21 delegates in the seven individual congressional district conventions held in the state.

Observers have put Cruz’s success down to superior organization among a very conservative electorate. The Texas senator had been organizing in Colorado for almost a year. In contrast, Trump’s state director, Patrick Davis, was just hired last week and the campaign had practically no contact with grassroots activists.

Trump staffers openly admitted to reporters that they had no expectation of winning a single delegate. These issues were further aggravated by the campaign printing out flawed sample ballots that directed Trump supporters to vote for the wrong candidates to be delegates to the RNC.

Trump’s tirade prompted a quick response on Twitter from Cory Gardner, the state’s Republican senator. Gardner went on the attack, deriding Trump both for his lack of effort and his “temper tantrum”