Donald Trump's campaign says that the Tennessee Republican Party is attempting to "steal" their delegates. | AP Photo Tennessee GOP delegate fight erupts ahead of party meeting

Donald Trump’s campaign issued a late-night plea in Tennessee on Friday, telling supporters there that the state’s Republican Party was “trying to steal” his delegates and urging them to crash a party meeting on Saturday morning to stop them.

“We won the votes. They are trying to steal them. I can’t believe I am writing this. But the Tennessee Republican Party wants to steal your vote TOMORROW,” Darren Morris, Trump’s Tennessee state director wrote in a missive late Friday.


Party leaders, alarmed by an intensifying backlash throughout the night, have hired extra security for the event -- which party chairman Ryan Haynes noted had been scheduled to take place in a small, unsecured conference room -- and they're considering canceling the event altogether.

"We've seen what's happened at other events around the country," Haynes said, referencing spurts of violence at some Trump campaign rallies. "The last thing we'd want to see is something get disorderly.”

Added Haynes, "We've been in contact with individuals in law enforcement here in Tennessee.”

The skirmish is the latest in the increasingly fierce battle for delegates to the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

At issue are the state’s 14 at-large delegates that were not assigned in the March 1 primary but are set to be selected by the party’s executive committee. Trump won the Tennessee primary and many of the delegates were directly elected at that time. Morris wrote that Trump’s campaign had struck a deal with party leaders on Wednesday to fill the remaining at-large slots with Trump’s share of the vote.

Haynes said Morris exploded earlier in the week when the party informed the campaign they'd only get six of their seven delegate choices at Saturday's meeting. Tennessee's GOP rules give the party the ultimate authority to name delegates, though it usually accepts input from the campaigns.

"They informed us that they did not care about party procedures. They don't care about the Republican Party," Haynes said.

Haynes added that on Friday, the list of delegates changed again and only four of Trump's original seven requests were included, prompting Morris' scathing call to supporters.

“The State Party Chairman, Ryan Haynes, agreed to that ON WEDNESDAY,” Morris wrote. “Those pulling his puppet strings changed his mind and now apparently he wants to appoint delegates representing candidates who don’t support Donald Trump and WHO DID NOT RECEIVE ANY ALLOCATED DELEGATES on March 1.”

Brent Leatherwood, executive director of the Tennessee Republican Party, said there was never such a deal and accused the Trump campaign of speaking “dismissively” of one of their "female members.”

"Instead of stirring up strife and grossly mischaracterizing the conversation that took place between Mr. Morris and Chairman Haynes, let's set the record straight. There was never an agreement, especially after the Trump campaign spoke dismissively about the Party process and one of our female members,” Leatherwood said in a statement.

Morris urged supporters to crash the party's 10 a.m. Saturday executive committee meeting by arriving a half-hour in advance. “There is a small group of Tennessee establishment insiders pulling a fast one. DON’T LET THIS HAPPEN,” he wrote.

Haynes said if he couldn't guarantee safety of Saturday’s meeting, "In no way would I foresee going forward with an event. We hope cooler minds prevail on these kind of things ... I've never quite experienced anything quite like this."

Morris did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Other Tennessee party leaders were just learning of the escalating clash late Friday, with some referring to it as "rumors" or suggesting they were unaware of how pitched the sniping had become between the Trump campaign and party leaders. But others were incensed at the Trump camp as well.

One state executive committee member, Scott Smith, rebutted the Trump campaign's allegations in an email, saying that the root of the conflict is the fact that some of Trump's Tennessee supporters "depend on threats, manipulation, outlandish accusations and behavior."

Leatherwood said the party was pressing forward. "The TNGOP will fill out the remaining delegate spots consistent with our bylaws, state law, and the results of the March 1st Presidential Primary,” he said.

Trump, Ted Cruz and John Kasich are not only competing in primaries and caucuses across the country but to name the actual individuals who will serve as delegates because, should Trump fall short of the 1,237 delegates he needs to secure the GOP nomination on the first ballot, those individuals will ultimately select the nominee.

Every state has different rules about how long delegates must stay pledged to their state’s results and Leatherwood noted that in Tennessee, “Despite what they are saying, state law mandates all delegates be bound to their respective candidate for two rounds of balloting at the Republican National Convention. There are no exceptions to that requirement."

