News Digest

Angered over possible contested convention, Carson considers leaving GOP

Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson threatened on Friday to bolt the party and launch an independent White House bid, accusing Republican Party leaders of trying to manipulate who wins the 2016 nomination. Carson’s threat came a day after party operatives said the race is so unpredictable that it could result in a contested convention in July, when delegates meet to formally pick their presidential nominee. Carson’s concern is that party officials will rally around a candidate of their choice and exclude him.

I assure you Donald Trump won’t be the only one leaving the party.

Ben Carson

A so-called brokered convention, in which no single candidate has a sufficient number of nominating delegates to become the presidential nominee in the November election, used to be a common feature of American politics. But there has not been one in more than 60 years. Top party operatives, at a dinner hosted by Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, discussed the possibility that the Republican battle for a nominee will extend to the July 18-21 convention in Cleveland, officials told Reuters on Thursday. Donald Trump’s rise to the top of the 14-candidate field has confounded establishment Republicans who have been waiting in vain for the New York billionaire’s insurgent campaign to collapse.