That’s a bit of a problem now that the likely Republican presidential candidate was found guilty of 34 felonies.
The rules say that the state committee will not back or push any candidate for public office who has been convicted of a crime. These rules cover everything from party meetings to how delegates must vote at national conventions.
The party seems to be following the rules on social media—there are no posts about Donald Trump on the Vermont GOP’s Twitter or Facebook pages since the historic guilty verdict in his hush-money case. However, the party’s social media pages usually only talk about local candidates and presidential candidates who visit the state.
An old copy of the rules says that the rule has been in place since at least 2013, but the party seems to have changed its rules by early 2022.
The Internet Archive says that by March 2022, the written rules had been changed so that the state committee could let a candidate off the hook by majority vote.
A rule like this might not change how the GOP delegates from Vermont vote at the Republican National Convention in July.
Nikki Haley, a former U.N. ambassador, got all of Vermont’s delegates but stopped running for office in March. She has since backed Trump. Delegates to the RNC are not required to stay with a candidate if they drop out or stop their campaign. This is because of party rules.
When asked for comments, the Republican National Committee and Paul Dame, chair of the Vermont Republican Party, did not reply right away.
When Trump announced his run for president in 2022, Dame said in a statement that he didn’t think Trump was the best choice for the party.
“I believe that the best thing for the future of the party is for other qualified and accomplished Republicans to join the primary to give Republican voters a better choice in the 2024 election,” he added.
The Democratic National Committee said in a statement that Vermont Republicans should back President Joe Biden instead in November.
Deputy Communications Director Abhi Rahman said, “We already knew Donald Trump was a threat to the American people and our democracy. But according to the Vermont GOP’s own rules, Donald Trump can’t even get their support.” “We’re excited that the Vermont Republican Party will back Joe Biden in November. He is the only candidate with a chance of getting 270 votes who has never been convicted of a felony.”
Source – NBCnews