Group of Arizona Republicans fight to deny Trump the nomination
PHOENIX - As Donald Trump campaigns to win over voters across the nation, there's a longshot revolt underway. A group of very committed "Never Trump" delegates is hoping against hope that the presumptive nominee doesn't make it past the convention this month.
In a commercial, former President Ronald Reagan says, "Use of force is always and only a last resort," followed by Trump saying, "I would bomb the [expletive] out of them."
Contrasting the Republican presumptive nominee with the former president, the insurgent group "Free the Delegates 2016" is appealing to those headed to the national convention to vote their conscience instead of Donald Trump. Some claim they're being bullied.
"A lot of delegates have been told if you don't support Trump, you're not going to get a hotel reservation in Cleveland," said Talmage Pearce, a national GOP delegate from Arizona, who says he is being harassed by his own party.
"If somebody doesn't want to participate, doesn't want to vote, than one of the best solutions on the planet is to stay home," said Robert Graham of the Arizona Republican Party.
Arizona's GOP party chair says disruptors will be removed and adds they would be breaking a state statute that requires delegates to support the primary winner.
Each state decides whether to bind delegates to the primary or caucus winner.
"It's always been the delegates who have selected the nominee. It's only been in recent elections where states have come in and hijacked the nomination process," said Pearce.
The Anti-Trump faction says it interprets Republican National Committee Convention rules as freeing them of the candidate. An RNC source tells FOX News on background the theory that delegates are unbound is incorrect.
In Virginia, a delegate filed for a federal injunction to unbind.
"With national and state political parties being private institutions, you cannot have the state order them in how to exercise their associational rights and the expressive rights," said David Rivkin, a delegate attorney.
"Listen, I have millions of people out there, almost 14 million to be exact, that will be extremely unhappy if that happens," said Trump.
Arizona Senator John McCain told the Weekly Standard he thinks it's up to the delegates to make up their own minds. What the delegates haven't come up with is their alternative candidate.