Ted Cruz: 'contested' convention OK, 'brokered' convention not

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said Tuesday in an interview with Fox News, which aired Wednesday evening, that he would be OK with a "contested convention," but not a "brokered convention."

The two terms have become prominent in political buzz as it grows increasingly likely that no candidate will claim an outright majority of delegates before the GOP convention in July. In that case, delegates would re-vote to pick a winner.

Cruz previously has asserted that a brokered convention would prompt a voter "revolt," but he told Fox's Megyn Kelly at a town hall interview in Raleigh, North Carolina that, "a contested convention is a different thing."

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So, what's the difference? According to Jeff Engle, director of the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University, "In a contested convention, no one shows up with all the delegates they need (to win the nomination). In a brokered convention, people begin cutting deals."

In other words, the delegates supporting third- and fourth-place candidates would have to choose which of the top two candidates to support in a contested convention.

"All of these definitions are kind of squishy," said Aaron Crawford, a post-doctoral fellow at the Center for Presidential History. "I'm pretty sure that no one knows exactly what they mean yet. They're going to have to figure out the rules."

A brokered convention implies that a backroom meeting of party bosses would make arrangements to pick a candidate — plausibly one that wasn't even on the primary ballot. That hasn't happened in modern political history, and it's hard to imagine how it would work.

Fox News' Megyn Kelly interviewed Texas Sen. Ted Cruz at a town...

"I think it would be absolutely catastrophic to have a brokered convention where they try to parachute in some D.C. establishment candidate. You would see an open revolt," Cruz said to cheers Tuesday, before saying that a contested convention, with an open vote on the floor, would be acceptable.

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"Reagan and Ford battled it out at a contested convention," he said in reference to the 1976 GOP convention. "That's what conventions are for. If you're fighting between the candidates who have earned the votes of the people, and it's the delegates at the convention who've been elected to do that, that's the way the system works and that's perfectly appropriate."

Late last month, Cruz told reporters in Texas that a contested convention was "not going to happen," Politico reported.

The New York Times reported Wednesday that GOP presidential contender Donald Trump would need 54 percent of the remaining delegates to win the nomination, while Cruz would need 62 percent. If both candidates fall below that mark, the convention will be contested.