About a dozen conservative leaders met for three hours today to discuss how to prevent Donald Trump from obtaining enough delegates to clinch the Republican nomination, and if that fails, whether a third party candidate would be an option.
The Washington Post reports that Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) was at the meeting and said, “It’s certainly not too late. You could get another party on the ballot. If you did that, you’d need a movement conservative to be the candidate I am worried about the kind of damage that Trump could cause to our party. You can’t trust him and we’ve got to stop him.”
Conservative leader Bob Fischer gathered more than a dozen activists and Republican lawmakers to discuss how to stop Trump from getting their party’s nomination. The idea of a third party option this fall was debated according to CNN. But there was also discussion that if Trump is the GOP nominee, then “the GOP ceases to be a party for traditional conservatives, who must go elsewhere.”
The thought process was to work with “an existing third party instead of trying for ballot access.” That would probably be the existing Libertarian or Constitution parties.
Any serious conservative alternative would likely be costly for Trump in must-win battleground states like Ohio.