In the fight to stop Donald Trump from winning the Republican nomination, opponents often point to his awful polling numbers in a matchup against Hillary Clinton. Historically terrible numbers among female voters are driving Trump’s theoretical thrashing in the November election. So it was perhaps a bit odd to see such a male-heavy slate of delegates come out of the district conventions, which were dominated by Ted Cruz supporters.
Cruz backers handily won 11 of the 12 delegates up for grab at the district conventions on Saturday, which will badly damage Trump’s chances if the national convention goes to a second ballot. Only Marianette Miller-Meeks in the 2nd Congressional District got through the balloting as a delegate undeclared for any candidate.
9 of Cruz’s 11 delegates to the national convention are all men. Sandy Salmon and Amy Christen are the only women who will head to Cleveland planning to back Cruz on the second ballot, and Christen wasn’t even on one of the official Cruz delegate slates.
That type of disparity wouldn’t happen on the Democrats’ side in Iowa, where party diversity rules dictate an even number of male and females be selected for delegates to the national convention. Cruz backers may want to find some more women to fill out their slates at the state convention in March where the party chooses the rest of Iowa’s national convention delegates.
Here’s who was elected as national delegates from the Republicans’ district conventions this weekend:
CD 1
Sandy Salmon
David Chung
Ben Barringer
CD 2
Greg Heartsill
Mariannette Miller-Meeks
Amy Christen
CD 3
Matt Schultz
Jake Chapman
Wes Enos
CD 4
Jason Schultz
Chuck Petterson
Adam Motzko
by Pat Rynard
Posted 4/10/16