A new anti-Donald Trump proposal is trying to allow delegates to vote their conscience at the Republican convention. | AP Photo Trump foes make new push to unbind GOP convention delegates

Anti-Trump delegates to the Republican National Convention are circulating the language of a plan that would free all delegates to vote for the candidate of their choosing at the convention, a move aimed at loosening Donald Trump’s grip on the party’s presidential nomination.

A letter, sent to members of the convention rules committee by Colorado delegate Kendal Unruh, makes no mention of Trump but includes a new party rule that would permit any delegate to shrug off pledged support — usually, support dictated by the results of state primaries or caucuses — for any candidate by invoking a new “conscience” clause.


“If any such delegate notifies the secretary of his or her intent to cast a vote of conscience, whether personal or religious, each such delegate shall be unbound and unconstrained by these rules on any given vote,” the proposal reads, “including the first ballot for the selection of the Republican nominee for President of the United States, without the risk of challenge, sanction, or retribution by the Republican National Committee.”

The plan describes legitimate personal reasons as including “public disclosure of one or more any grievous acts of personal conduct by a nominee candidate, including but not limited to, criminally actionable acts, acts of moral turpitude or extreme prejudice, and/or notorious public statements of support for positions that clearly oppose or contradict the policies embodied in the Republican Party's platform.”

Unruh, the rule’s author, has attended seven national conventions and was elected at a state convention to return as a delegate for Ted Cruz. She was also elected by her fellow Colorado delegates to serve on the convention rules committee. Unruh has become one of the leaders of the stop-Trump movement, though it’s unclear if she’ll find much support among fellow rules committee members. She’s running a group called Free the Delegates and is working to cobble together a majority of the convention’s 112-member rules committee to support her proposal.

In her letter, Unruh also embraces an argument proffered by North Dakota Republican Curly Haugland, who suggests that delegates are already free to vote their personal preference based on decades-old interpretations of Republican rules. Unruh argues that her proposal would simply codify explicitly the choice delegates already have.