Former president Donald Trump is scheduled to speak Friday at the California Republican Party convention in Anaheim in an appearance aimed at sweeping the state’s 169 delegates in the March presidential primary. The appearance follows his refusal to participate in this week’s GOP debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley and as he confronts four criminal indictments in his bid to retake the White House.
Under new state party rules, a presidential candidate who garners a majority of votes in the primary wins all 169 of California’s delegates — the largest cache of any state in the country. If no candidate wins a majority, then the delegates would be split among the contenders based on the percentage of vote each candidate won.
“He wants to make sure he locks down that very large slate of delegates,” said Jack Pitney, who teaches political science at Claremont McKenna College. “That will take him a long way toward locking down the nomination.”
Trump is also likely looking to regain the national attention gained by his opponents at the debate with an eye toward audiences in the early primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, Pitney said.
Three other presidential candidates also are scheduled to address the convention: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy.
Trump sold out
Trump will speak at the Anaheim Convention Center instead of a ballroom at the Marriott Hotel where Republicans are meeting because interest in seeing the former president is so high, according to Steve Frank, who publishes the GOP newsletter California Political News and Views. Tickets to the event are $600 each and have been sold out for weeks, he said. Desantis tickets are $250 a…
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