An all-out internal power struggle has erupted at the Republican National Committee, just days before a critical party gathering in Florida, as the head of the RNC’s powerful rules committee has accused his own party leadership of a “major breach of trust” in trying to block a rule change that he said would make it harder to reopen the GOP nomination fight at a contested convention this summer.

At issue: a controversial proposal that would drastically alter how the convention would function, changing the underlying rule book for proceedings — and potentially affecting whether party insiders could draft a so-called white knight at a deadlocked convention.


Rules Committee Chairman Bruce Ash criticized RNC Chairman Reince Priebus and his allies in an email Saturday to his panel, accusing them of working to scuttle the proposal and prevent it from getting a hearing at this week’s RNC spring meeting in Hollywood Beach, Florida.

The proposal in question would switch the rule book governing the convention from the rules of the U.S. House of Representatives, which have been used at Republican national conventions for decades, to Robert’s Rules of Order, which is common in civic and organizational meetings.

“It became apparent to me during the discussions with Reince and others at the RNC that there might be an underlying political result that adherence to the House Rules achieved, and that Roberts made more difficult,” Ash wrote in the email, which was first reported by The Associated Press. “Reopening the nominations for President during the balloting to permit a more acceptable candidate to be nominated other than Donald Trump or Ted Cruz.”

The proposal, which is the brainchild of Solomon Yue, an RNC member from Oregon, would further empower delegates to determine the course of the convention’s proceedings — while diminishing the power of the convention’s presiding officer, a role that is expected to be filled by House Speaker Paul Ryan. Yue has said he’s looking to increase transparency by decreasing the influence of insiders.

In Ash’s view, the change would have a profound impact on how the convention is run, potentially making it harder for insiders to push through a white knight candidate. In the email, Ash bluntly accused Priebus and his allies of trying to quash the proposal because it could make it harder to reopen the nomination process for a candidate who isn’t currently running.

In the more than two weeks since Yue submitted his proposal, Ash wrote that Priebus and other RNC officials have made “numerous requests” to withdraw or table the motion, “and even to agree to cancel the Rules Committee meeting or to prohibit any amendments from being considered at the meeting when the committee met.”

The breaking point, Ash wrote, came on Friday, when the RNC counsel’s office sent out an agenda for this week’s meeting that omits Yue’s proposal — even though it had been submitted weeks earlier. In the email, Ash described the move as a “major breach of trust,” adding: “I am now informing all of our committee members of this incident and insist Solomon’s amendment was pre-submitted and will be given priority consideration at the Rules Committee when we meet next week.”

John Ryder, the RNC’s chief counsel and an RNC member from Tennessee, replied later Saturday to suggest the dispute is a simple misunderstanding. “I thought we were all on the same page,” Ryder wrote.

But Ryder lined up with Priebus, who has said he doesn’t support changing the party’s rules.

“Especially in the middle of the current primary contest, it is important that the RNC not take action that can be interpreted as attempting to favor one candidate or another,” Ryder wrote. “Major changes now are dangerous and not a good idea, in my humble opinion.”

If anything, Ash argued in his email, the incident is an illustration of why the convention should adopt Robert’s Rules of Order.

“In light of this serious breach and an unwillingness to conduct a proper debate is it prudent for the RNC to continue to give the extraordinary power of the House Rules to the presiding officer as opposed to the more transparent, democratic and majoritarian rules in Robert’s?”

The fight comes at a deeply sensitive time for the RNC, which has come under withering attack in recent days from Trump. In TV interviews and tweets, Trump has argued that the committee has overseen a “rigged” nomination process that gives undue power to insiders to determine the delegate-selection process. Priebus has aggressively pushed back on those charges and has worked behind the scenes to defeat any rules changes amid Trump’s accusations that the nomination process is unfair.

The chairman said Sunday on CNN that he opposes the RNC’s rules committee making any changes this week.

“I don’t think that it’s a good idea for us next week, I mean, before the convention to make serious rules changes or recommendations of changes right now,” Priebus said. “I think we’re in a politically charged environment. I think it’s too complicated. I think that the RNC Rules Committee, going forward, with making rules amendment suggestions is — it is not a good idea.”

He noted that any changes at the spring meeting in Florida would only be recommendations anyway, before another rules committee governing the convention gathers in Cleveland this summer.

“It’s up to the delegates at the convention,” he said. “So the recommendations, I think, just confuse people. I think it’s a bad idea. And the environment, I think, is not conducive to that.”