CLEVELAND — The Republican National Committee and Donald Trump’s campaign are scrambling to quash a small but dangerous insurgency inside the party aimed at wresting the nomination away from the New York billionaire on national television next week.

It’s a pivotal showdown in which anti-Trump forces are the underdogs as they introduce a proposal that would free convention delegates to rebel against Trump and select a new nominee.


And the RNC, desperate to avoid chaos during a convention that will be watched worldwide, is fighting back.

About a dozen of RNC Chairman Reince Priebus’s most loyal allies who hold seats on the 112-member Rules Committee are working to extinguish the anti-Trump efforts. The existence of the whip team, which includes prominent party figures like Henry Barbour, a party official from Mississippi who is the nephew of former RNC Chairman Haley Barbour, was confirmed by three sources who’ve been briefed on it.

The efforts are extensive enough that the whip team has drafted a map, obtained by POLITICO, of the committee’s seating arrangements that marks where each of the pro-Trump members are sitting and demarcates lines around which committee members each whip is responsible to lobby.

The push to reject Trump at the party’s convention comes to a head on Thursday and Friday, when the influential Rules Committee decides whether to allow delegates to unbind themselves from their states’ primary results and instead vote their conscience.

The goal of the anti-Trump forces is to persuade 28 members of the Rules Committee to sign a “minority report” in favor of unbinding delegates — a move that would force a full, messy vote on the convention floor.

Trump allies believe the anti-Trump effort has stalled and has the support of only around 20 delegates. Kendal Unruh, a Colorado member of the Rules Committee and a leader of the anti-Trump effort, insisted Wednesday she had the support of 28 members — the precise number needed to force a minority report to the floor.

The Trump operation arrived in Cleveland early and in full force, with William McGinley, a lawyer and rules expert, Brian Jack, Trump’s delegate director, Alan Cobb, who worked on delegates during the primaries, Mike Biundo, another GOP convention veteran and Don McGahn, Trump’s top lawyer, and Jason Miller, Trump’s new senior communications adviser, all on hand.

The RNC is now adding to that operation, with a closed-door meeting of party brass and Trump whip teams scheduled on Wednesday night at the Westin hotel, just a few blocks away from the convention center, on the eve of the rules panel meeting.

Over the past few days, the RNC’s whips have been systematically reaching out to fellow members to ensure they’re in line and not about to bolt from Trump.

The draft map, for instance, shows Steve Munisteri, a whip team member from Texas, sitting in the upper right area of the meeting room and responsible for overseeing several adjoining states, including members from Oklahoma and Utah. Randy Evans of Georgia sits in the lower left and oversees a handful of states including Maine and Maryland.

The RNC whip team’s draft map of the Rules committee’s seating arrangements demarcates who each whip is responsible to lobby. | Alex Isenstadt

Reached on Wednesday, neither Munisteri nor Evans would detail their role — though they acknowledged they were helping rally support.

“It is no secret I am opposed to unbinding so of course I will be trying to persuade my fellow rules members,” said Munisteri.

“My job is to keep everyone pointed in the same direction,” said Evans.

The whip team has also been reviewing a list of over 50 Rules members whose support they are eager to solidify. The chart, which was provided to POLITICO, includes email address and cellphone numbers for all the delegates who are being targeted.

Many of those on the whip team, such as Steve Duprey of New Hampshire and Steve King of Wisconsin, are loyalists of RNC Chairman Reince Priebus. In recent weeks, Priebus has made clear his view that Trump will be the nominee and that any efforts to dump him are ill-advised and contrary to party rules. In one recent conversation with a Rules Committee member, Priebus urged them to “kick to the curb” appeals from anti-Trump delegates.

Separately, Priebus’ team is working to defeat a package being proposed by former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli that would fundamentally alter how the party operates. Cuccinelli, a prominent anti-establishment figure, wants to diminish the power of future RNC chairs and give greater authority to the party’s grass roots. Two sources who’ve discussed the matter with Priebus said he found the proposal annoying and wants it defeated.

Representatives of the RNC and the Trump campaign were not immediately available to comment on the efforts.

Anti-Trump delegates continued huddling quietly ahead of Wednesday evening’s Rules Committee orientation, where they came face to face with the daunting RNC operation for the first time.

Delegates Unbound, one of the groups working to block Trump, reserved $30,000 in ads on Fox News Channel in Cleveland’s media market, according to sources tracking the ad war. The ads are scheduled to run Friday through Sunday — well after the Rules Committee adjourns — suggesting the group is anticipating lobbying the broader pool of convention delegates ahead of a possible floor fight.

Unruh, the anti-Trump Rules Committee member, arrived late to Wednesday afternoon’s orientation, and she was seen racing into the building with a suitcase. On her way out of the meeting, she refused to talk to reporters and a companion urged press to “give her some space.”

One wild card: Sen. Mike Lee, who has spoken out against Trump and sits on the Rules Committee along with his wife. He has not yet said how he would vote on the unbinding efforts and many see the push as unlikely to succeed without his backing.

One senior Trump adviser said the goal of the joint whip operation is to prevent a minority report so that there aren't days of speculation or signs the party isn't united.

As delegates make their way to Cleveland, many say the idea of rejecting Trump has lost its appeal. Following a long and bitter primary, some Trump critics concede the battle is over — and that it’s time to move on to the general election.

Others point out that for all the energy of the anti-Trump movement, they’ve failed to do the one thing they needed to do to defeat him: find an alternative.

“You can’t have a contest unless you have contestants,” said Ron Kaufman, an influential Massachusetts party official who will be co-chairing the Rules Committee. “We have one man running. He’s the nominee. There’s no one else.”

