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 A committee of Wyoming Republicans is likely to hand Cruz most of
the state's 14 remaining delegates to the party's national
convention in July, political operatives, including Trump supporters
in the state, told Reuters. That may not seem like a big number, but
both men are engaged in a fierce struggle to win as many as possible
of the party insiders who could decide the presidential nominee at a
contested convention.
Cruz's strength in Wyoming underscores the contrast between the way
the rivals handle this nuance of American politics: where Cruz
focuses on organizing at a minute level to court delegates in
preparation for a convention fight, Trump has run a national
campaign focused on winning the popular vote in early nominating
contests and has paid little attention to the more arcane elements
of U.S. presidential politics.
Cruz's effort has included personal visits to far-flung areas,
regular conference calls among his state supporters, and hospitality
suites to court backers within state parties, while Trump has
assailed the delegate system as "rigged" and only recently
reorganized his campaign to focus on them.
"I think Cruz has done a good job with how they targeted states,"
said Jason Osborne, a Republican strategist who has advised Trump,
and who previously worked on former candidate Ben Carson's campaign.
“An operation like Trump’s was built for something completely
different."
Trump’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment.
The United States has a unique system for picking presidential
nominees. A combination of nominating polls – usually in the form of
state primaries, caucuses, and party conventions – are used to
apportion delegates to candidates.
In the Republican race, a candidate needs to win a majority of the
total 2,472 delegates to get the nomination. While Trump has won 21
state nominating contests so far to Cruz's nine, the billionaire
leads the Texas senator by only 208 delegates (743-545).
To avoid a convention fight, Trump needs 1,237 delegates to secure
the nomination. That means he has to win nearly 60 percent of the
remaining delegates before July.
KEEP THE PROMISE
Cruz's effort in Wyoming, America's least populous state, is a
window into his broader delegate strategy and helps explain how he
has become a formidable candidate despite his relatively underdog
performance in the primaries so far.
The effort began in 2015, while most other candidates were focused
on the early races in Iowa or New Hampshire. Ed Buchanan, a trial
attorney in Cheyenne, got a call from Heidi Cruz, the candidate's
wife, in October asking if he would become the state chairman for
Cruz's presidential campaign.
Buchanan, a former speaker of the State House, agreed to the role,
which has taken him to every corner of the state trying to court
support and build a slate of delegates.
Some states allow the voters to select the delegates who will attend
the Republican convention on their behalf, but in most, like
Wyoming, Colorado and North Dakota, voters have no say in who goes
to Cleveland.
 If Trump doesn't have the 1,237 delegates needed to win the
nomination outright, many delegates will become free at the July
convention to pick a candidate based on their personal preference,
not the choice of the voters in their state.
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That is why campaigns want their supporters among the delegates and
that is where Buchanan comes in.
He is responsible for assembling a list of the Cruz campaign's
preferred delegates, which he will present to the Casper conference.
Each would-be Cruz delegate has promised not to switch allegiances
if the voting at the Cleveland convention goes beyond one ballot.
Buchanan expects them to stick to their word. If they don't, it will
not go unnoticed, he said.
"It's a small state. The people who are in political circles know
each other and that would not be forgotten," he said.
CAMPAIGN BUTTONS AND FREE FOOD
In Wyoming, Cruz won nine of the 12 delegates who were selected at
county-level meetings in March. Nearly 1,000 of the state's most
active party members will decide in Casper this weekend the
remaining 14 delegates to be voted on.
Cruz will speak on Saturday and his supporters have organized a
hospitality room, where they will have freebies like campaign
buttons and food.
Trump has not campaigned in the state and will spend the weekend in
New York, which holds a major primary next week. He will send former
Alaska Governor Sarah Palin in his stead.
"Cruz was here, and that makes a difference to a small state,"
former U.S. Senator Alan Simpson of Wyoming said in an interview.
Trump has been slow to adapt his campaign to the delegate fight and
has instead attacked the process.
"I know the rules very well, but I know it’s stacked against me by
the establishment," Trump said on CNN on Tuesday.
It is likely now too late to combat Cruz's operation in Wyoming.
Dick Shanor, who will attend the national convention to support
Cruz, said supporters organized to get like-minded voters to show up
at the county elections last month, helping the senator to score
those early delegate wins.
Jack Volsey, a Trump supporter from Rock Springs, Wyoming, had a
different experience. He said he sent a message to a pro-Trump
Facebook group in the state asking how he could participate in his
county convention, but he never heard back. He was eventually
selected as an alternate delegate to this weekend's gathering, but
he has decided not to go.
"I’m not going to go there to sit on the sidelines when I’m sure
it’s a done deal already."
(Editing by Richard Valdmanis and Ross Colvin)
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