GOP official: The party chooses the nominee, not the voters

A member of the Republican National Committee’s Rules Committee said Wednesday that the party will decide who the GOP nominee will be, not the voters.

“The media has created the perception that the voters will decide the nomination,” Curly Haugland said in an interview with CNBC. “That’s the conflict here.”

{mosads}”The political parties choose their nominees, not the general public, contrary to popular belief,” he added.

Haugland was then asked what the point of holding primaries is if the party can disregard the will of the voters.

“That’s a very good question,” he responded.

Some Republicans have floated the idea of a contested convention in order to prevent front-runner Donald Trump from securing the party’s nomination. Trump, however, appears on track to win enough delegates to clinch the nomination on the first ballot.

Haugland, one of the party’s few unbound delegates that can decide who they want to vote for, argued that the party can block Trump even if he wins 1,237 delegates through the primaries.

“The primary votes are not considered [at the convention], it’s the delegates’ votes,” he said.