HOLLYWOOD, Fla. — Fresh off a dominating performance in New York, Donald Trump is pivoting to winning over a far less friendly crowd: the chiefs of a Republican Party, whose nominating process he’s bashed almost daily as “rigged” and undemocratic.

The billionaire is dispatching his most senior aides, including newly ascendant political strategists Paul Manafort and Rick Wiley, to woo the delegates here at the beachfront hotel and resort where the Republican National Committee’s spring meeting is underway. The gathering brings together the party’s 168 committee members, all of whom will be delegates this summer in Cleveland — and who could prove crucial in a deadlocked convention.


But Trump has stiff competition, as Ted Cruz and John Kasich arrived in person for the ego-stroking, schmoozing and selling of GOP insiders. And Trump was not only battling his opponents but his own his heated and repeated attacks on the RNC, which he has accused of orchestrating a nomination process that’s stacked against him.

“People are going to question his rhetoric,” said Roger Villere, the Louisiana Republican Party chairman, who urged the front-runner to scale back his attacks on the committee’s chairman, Reince Priebus. “I think that’s traditionally the way he did business as an aggressive businessman, which is fine. But I think in politics, you want to work with people. I don’t think anyone wants to be adversarial. So, it makes you take pause.”

Throughout the halls of the posh Diplomat resort, nearly all of the buzz was about Trump. Some wondered about whether he would hit the magic number of 1,237 delegates needed for the nomination. Others questioned what to do about a front-runner seemingly hell-bent on whacking the party hierarchy almost nonstop.

While Trump isn’t expected to appear in person — he spent Wednesday in Indiana, where he reiterated his accusation that the party is overseeing a “rigged system” — his top brass are out in force. Wiley arrived early Wednesday, along with campaign attorney Don McGahn and William McGinley, the newest addition to his campaign legal team and a former RNC deputy general counsel. Ed Brookover, a longtime Republican strategist who’s been helping Trump wrangle delegates, is also expected to attend.

On Thursday afternoon, Wiley and Manafort are scheduled to hold a 90-minute presentation to lay out the case for the real estate mogul. After that, retired surgeon Ben Carson, a former Trump primary rival who is now an outspoken surrogate, will greet RNC members at a reception.

The RNC offensive follows a dramatic shakeup in the campaign, with Manafort and Wiley — two veteran political hands who have deep experience in the delegate-counting game — taking on elevated roles. To many, the outreach represents a new phase for Trump. While most Republican hopefuls court the party’s powerful establishment hierarchy, the businessman has been dismissive and outright disparaging of it.

“He needs to understand our way of doing business a little more. He just needs to understand how we operate,” said Jonathan Barnett, an influential RNC member from Arkansas. “He needs to get to know us a little better and once he does, you know, we’ve got a lot in common.”

The timing of the meeting was a boon for Trump, coming a day after his big win in New York. While talk of a contested convention is rampant, many are convinced that Trump will ultimately be the party’s standard-bearer — and that it’s time for both sides to start working together.

“I think everyone is open to listening to him,” Villere said. “I think there’s a real good possibility he’ll be our nominee.”

The Cruz forces spent the day trying to exploit Trump’s chilly relationship from GOP leaders. His aides held a morning briefing in which they detailed how Cruz would help down-ballot candidates — a pitch tailor-made for local and state-level party officials — while Cruz’s campaign manager, Jeff Roe, warned that Trump would be disastrous.

His nomination, Roe told reporters afterwards, could lead to “a situation where we’d have to rename our party.”

Cruz, meanwhile, spent the evening huddling with small groups of RNC members to plead his case. His presentation included polling that detailed his path to victory in the primary and general election. During one meeting, though, he was challenged by an RNC member who asked whether he risked backlash from voters who might be angry if he ends up winning delegates in states whose primary he lost. Cruz, according to one person present, responded that it was simply part of the process and he was executing strategy.

For Cruz, the scene at the oceanfront resort represented a remarkable turnabout for a politician who cut his teeth railing against the Republican establishment. Asked at a news conference why he was venturing into the “den of the Washington cartel” he’s built his campaign denouncing, Cruz gave the RNC the equivalent of a politically bear hug.

“The den of the Washington cartel is the lobbyists in Washington that are suckling off of Big Government. The people who are here are elected grass-roots activists from the states,” Cruz said. “They’re the people who knock on doors, they’re the people who make phone calls, they’re the people who organize on the ground.”

While Trump’s team is making a serious push here, there are doubts that he is serious he about organizing to win over delegates selected in local conventions — a front on which he’s been massively outgunned. To many, Trump is focused on hitting the 1,237-delegate threshold by the time the primaries conclude on June 7, which would save him from the perils of a contested convention.

“I’m not sure I matter. I’m not sure individual delegates matter, to be honest with you. He still has a path to win the nomination by winning elections,” said Matt Moore, the South Carolina Republican Party chairman. “I suspect if we get to June, his campaign will spend a lot more time on the one-on-one than they’ve spent so far.”

This week, though, Trump seemed to be settling into the idea of playing a game he’s been reluctant to play so far — the inside one.

On Wednesday morning, as Wiley made his way down an escalator, he found himself being chased by a horde of reporters. He glanced at Saul Anuzis, a Cruz aide who is helping the Texan with delegate outreach.

“Welcome to the circus,” Wiley joked to his rival.