This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Donald Trump dodged a bullet and Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, took one when the Republican National Convention's Rules Committee overwhelmingly rejected a move to let delegates pick any presidential candidate they wanted.
Lee, the highest-ranking public official on the committee, became a leading voice for the "conscience" effort, which sought to remove a rule requiring delegates to mirror the primary or caucus vote in each state.
It failed Thursday evening on a vote of 87-12. Lee and his wife, Sharon Lee, were in the minority.
Lee, who has refused to endorse Trump and has criticized him publicly, argued delegates should have autonomy and that conventions shouldn't simply be "pep rallies" for the nominees.
"The angst, as we will see in a few days, isn't going to just go away just because we paper over it with rules," he told the committee. "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. It is not going to help. It is not going to help elect him president. It is not going to help our party in the long run."
Enid Mickelsen, a Utahn and former U.S. House member, led the committee and turned the floor over to former Texas Republican Party Chairman Steve Munisteri, who took direct aim at Lee.
"What I don't understand about your logic is that you want to ignore what are really the grass roots who are millions and millions and millions of voters who voted for Donald Trump, and instead transfer the opinion and the expression of that opinion through a vote to a couple thousand delegates," said Munisteri, who is a consultant to Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus. "Sir, there is nobody else running for president in this party right now than Donald Trump."
A group of delegates who opposed Trump pushed the failed vote, gathering under the banner "Free the Delegates." Afterward, Lee, in an interview with The Salt Lake Tribune, said he wanted the national convention to more closely reflect Utah's conventions, where delegates can select candidates. Even if it passed, he expected Trump still would claim the party's nomination largely because of what Munisteri said: No Republican has offered himself or herself up as an alternative.
Trump has failed to articulate a clear message or his political principles, Lee believes. He said he hopes the candidate would embrace a message of limited government and federalism, central to the Republican Party, which would answer the questions "for any who may be concerned about what kind of president he would be, whether he would overreach or be an authoritarian."