Received phone calls and mailers to vote for delegates.
The fight for republican delegates heats up in PA.


Republicans fight for Pennsylvania's free agent delegates

More than 100 people in a southcentral Pennsylvania fire hall wanted to know who Charlie Gerow, a delegate candidate who stood before them that night, would vote for if he attends a contested Republican National Convention in July.His first ballot, he told them, would be for whoever wins the most votes in his congressional district.

After that, he said, he would consider who is best suited to beat Democrat Hillary Clinton and who can carry on the legacy of President Ronald Reagan.“Who is that?” one man yelled.“We will have to wait and see,” Gerow replied, to some murmurs in the crowd.That's how it is in Pennsylvania politics these days.The state's unusual system for selecting GOP delegates to the convention could help decide whether billionaire businessman Donald Trump gets the 1,237 delegates he needs to secure the nomination. That setup, and the close GOP race, has put Pennsylvania and its delegates in the spotlight in a way that hasn’t happened since at least 1976.



Trump has been leading in the Pennsylvania polls, but a win in Tuesday's primary won’t guarantee him a majority of delegates.Pennsylvania Republicans will send 71 delegates to Cleveland. Of those, 17 will have to vote on the first ballot for whoever gets the most votes statewide. But 54 will go to the convention as free agents and can vote for whoever they want on the first ballot.

Those 54 will be the largest group of formally unbound delegates at the convention, according to Richard E. Berg-Andersson, who does research and commentary for The Green Papers, a website that tracks delegate information. He said delegates in some other states might become unbound because their presidential candidates have dropped out of the race.

Pennsylvania could be the star of a contested convention.“We will be at the center of every discussion, every conversation, every strategy that you can imagine,” said Gerow, a Republican strategist who attended his first convention as a volunteer for Reagan’s campaign in 1976.