Craig Gilbert

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

MILWAUKEE — Donald Trump won Wisconsin's 3rd Congressional District on April 5.

But when the names of the GOP convention delegates from that district were announced Monday, the list included no open Trump supporters.

Wisconsin is another example of a state where the Trump campaign made little organized push to get its own backers elected as delegates to the July convention in Cleveland.

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Trump won two of eight congressional districts in the Wisconsin primary, which entitles him to six pledged delegates (and six alternates).

But most of those slots have gone to party regulars and longtime GOP volunteers, because they were eligible to run, applied in time and vied for the post at district caucuses this month, said party officials.

"I didn't vote for Trump. I am not a Trump supporter, and near as I can tell none of us are," 3rd District GOP chair Brian Westrate said of the three delegates and three alternates elected recently from his western Wisconsin district.

In many states, that lack of organization and rank-and-file support could come back to haunt Trump in the event of a contested, multiballot convention in Cleveland.

After the first ballot, "those delegates become unbound in a great number of states. They're going to move elsewhere, and there's nothing Trump can really do about that," said Josh Putnam, a political scientist at the University of Georgia who tracks the nominating process.

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But in the case of Wisconsin, the impact is muted because its delegates are more strictly bound, he said. Republican delegates are pledged to the candidate who won their district until that candidate releases them or wins less than a third of the vote on any convention ballot.

"We are very, very locked in," said Westrate, who has been a vocal Trump critic.

"The people of the 3rd District voted (for Trump). We are pledged to follow the will of the people. ... That is the essence of representative government, subjecting your own will to the desires of those you represent," he said.

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"There is no wiggle room," state GOP chair Brad Courtney said of the pledge. If a delegate tries to violate it, that delegate will be removed from the convention and their vote will be recorded as pledged, he said.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz won 36 of Wisconsin's 42 delegates on April 5 — 18 for his statewide victory and three for each of the six congressional districts he won.

Trump won two districts, the 3rd and the 7th in northern Wisconsin. As in the 3rd, most of the 7th District's delegate and alternate slots went to longtime volunteers and activists, said district GOP chair Jim Miller.

Applicants had to be members of their county parties, with the desire to go to Cleveland and the commitment to participate in the caucuses.

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"We gave no campaign special treatment," said Courtney.

"It's a relatively expensive process," Westrate said of attending a convention. "It's not like there are people chomping at the bit."

Westrate said there were only eight applicants running for the six delegate and alternate slots in his district. Miller said the same number ran in the 7th District. Only six of the eight actually attended the 7th District caucus, and those six were selected, he said.

Miller said he wondered whether Trump would bring "new people in and they would lobby to be delegates, but we really didn't have that. The people that put in their (delegate) application are party veterans."

Under state GOP rules, the list of applicants for delegate slots is forwarded ahead of time to the presidential candidate who won that congressional district. The candidate gets to say which names he or she prefers. Those recommendations are given "due consideration" at the district caucuses but aren't binding.

Both Westrate and Miller said most of Trump's preferred names ended up as either delegates or alternates. But the Trump campaign didn't have a lot of choice.

Westrate said he was on the Trump list of recommended names, even though he had publicly criticized Trump.

"They appeared to do no actual due diligence on us," said Westrate.

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The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment on the Wisconsin delegate process.

"As far as I know, none of the eight candidates were Trump supporters," Westrate said, referring to the 3rd District.

Of the six selected as delegates or alternates, he said four had voted for Cruz, one had voted for Ohio Gov. John Kasich and one didn't reveal his vote.

Miller said most of the candidates for delegate at the 7th District caucus did not disclose whom they had voted for in the primary.

The caucus participants basically "went with people that we know," he said.

But Miller said one person elected as an alternate from his district had announced himself as a Trump supporter. And Miller said that while he tried to remain publicly neutral during the primary, he did vote for Trump, so "I am certainly comfortable casting that vote for him" at the convention.

Follow Craig Gilbert on Twitter: @WisVoter