Donald Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski will lead the New Hampshire delegation to the Republican National Convention in Cleveland this July.
In a closed-door meeting Friday at the state’s Republican Party headquarters in Concord, delegates voted to assign Trump supporters to almost all the convention committee positions.
Attendees said the vote was unanimous. And they pledged to start running outreach to unite the party behind the Trump, the only Republican left standing in the presidential contest.
“There are some hard feelings, but it’s the beginning of unifying,” said Juliana Bergeron, an RNC member and assigned Ted Cruz delegate. “I think people will come around.”
But there are signs of fracture among the delegate group.
Gordon Humphrey, a delegate for Ohio Gov. John Kasich and former U.S. senator, told the Union Leader on Friday that he disagrees with the decision to hand the convention committee appointments to Trump delegates instead of being divvied up.
Republican Rep. Bill O’Brien, a delegate for Cruz and former House speaker, told the Monitor earlier this week that he will not be supporting Trump or the Democratic candidate.
New Hampshire has 23 Republican delegates that are divided proportionally among the state’s presidential primary winners. Trump earned 11 after a resounding victory here in February. Cruz, Kasich, former Florida governor Jeb Bush and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio also won delegates.
Trump delegates were elected to six of the eight slots on the four convention committees: platform, permanent organization, rules and credentials. RNC member Steve Duprey, and Bergeron were also named to committees. Each committee calls for two delegates, a female and a male. Lewandowski was elected delegation chairman.
Sixteen of the state’s Republican delegates participated in the vote Thursday. And roughly half of them called into the meeting instead of showing up in person, including state party chairwoman Jennifer Horn.
Trump delegate Steve Stepanek said several people didn’t participate because they had prior engagements. The Republican representative said he is now focused on bringing the party together around Trump. Stepanek told reporters he doesn’t expect Trump to change his campaign style now that he is the presumptive Republican nominee.
“Mr. Trump is Mr. Trump,” he said. “He will not be ‘politically correct,’ which is what the people want.”
(Allie Morris can be reached at 369-3307, amorris@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @amorrisNH.)