Cleveland

At the RNC's Rules Committee meeting Thursday, all eyes were on Mike Lee. The Utah senator had publicly remained quiet about his position on a measure affirming the right of delegates to vote their consciences when electing the GOP presidential nominee. Pro-Trump and anti-Trump delegates thought that with Lee's support a conscience clause could win the 28 votes necessary to advance out of the committee and force a convention-wide vote on the issue.

In the end, Lee backed the conscience clause, but he never had the chance to make the case for it before it was defeated in committee. Fourteen hours into a sixteen-hour meeting, Colorado delegate Kendal Unruh introduced her conscience amendment. But 77 pro-Trump delegates swiftly moved to cut off debate after she spoke, while only 21 delegates opposed ending debate. The amendment was then defeated on a voice vote.

Unruh, a leader of the Free the Delegates effort, had confidently predicted this week that she had the 28 votes needed. She did not reply to an email asking why the effort came up short Thursday night.

Lee later rose during debate on another amendment to argue that the delegates still had the right to vote according to their consciences at the convention. "As delegates, we can choose to vote for whoever we choose on the floor," Lee said.

"Delegates traditionally, historically have been considered honor bound to follow the outcome of their state's primary election. And they overwhelmingly have done so," Lee added. "But historically it has also been the case that delegates have retained some option, some choice of their own, to make their own decisions in the unusual event that they find some conscience-binding reason why they can't do that."

"It's important for our presidential nominee to win at two levels: first to win the primaries and then to win over the delegates. It almost always happens," Lee said. "I hope that whoever our nominee is going to be this time will in fact win over the delegates."

Lee continued to suggest that Trump would face a floor fight at the convention. "Rules like this aren't going to help that. This problem, this angst, as we will see in a few days isn't going to go away just because we paper over it with rules," he said. "So I say to Mr. Trump and those aligned with him, make the case, make the case to those delegates who want to have a voice, make the case that they should use their voice to support him. Don't make the case that their voices should be silenced."

While Lee merely hinted that Trump could face a floor fight, Colorado's Kendal Unruh was blunt. "The floor fight is inevitable. I tried to maintain decorum in the process. Trump chose to fight," she told NBC News. Of course, without momentum coming out of the Rules Committee meeting the longshot effort to stop Trump at the convention has become even longer.