Iowa Republicans heal divides with united goal: ‘Never Hillary’

DES MOINES - Iowa Republicans worked Saturday to salve the bruises of bare-knuckle fight for the party's presidential nomination by rallying around a unifying cry of 'Never Hillary” heading to the 2016 political battlefield.

The 1,555 delegates who attended the GOP state convention cheered their elected officials and selected party members to represent them at the July national convention who generally backed Texas Sen. Ted Cruz but now plan to support Donald Trump as the party's presidential standard-bearer in the fall election.

'It's going to take us all working together as a united party in November so Hillary Clinton never sets a foot in the White House,” Gov. Terry Branstad told the delegates from Iowa's 99 counties who packed the Varied Industries building at the Iowa State Fairgrounds.

'We need to support Donald Trump and his choice for vice president because he will make America great again,” added the six-term governor.

Branstad said Clinton is the 'ultimate political insider” who would carry on the failed liberal policies of the Obama administration.

Ernst: Come together

U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, a Red Oak Republican who has been mentioned as a possible Trump running mate, said she sensed her party members are excited and energized over the prospects of taking back the White House, re-electing U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley and scoring victories up and down the 2016 ticket. She said is critical thatthe party rally together now toward a common goal after a divisive nominating battle.

'I have heard a number of folks say: ‘I will not support this candidate; I will not support that candidate; never this person; never that person,' ” Ernst said during her convention address. 'But I tell you what, folks. We've got to come together, because you know what my motto is going to be this year? Never Hillary. Never.”

King ‘feeling good'

U.S. Rep. Steve King, a Kiron Republican who supported Cruz for president, acknowledged a divide in the party, telling the convention he is working with the Trump people in hopes of persuading likely GOP presidential candidates to embrace stances important to constitutional conservatives.

'I'm concerned, and we're working in the direction to restore the influence and expand the influence of the constitutional conservatives. This is a constitutional conservative party,” said King.

He told reporters he is 'feeling good about our party” and hoped to 'iron out” differences by the time Republicans hold their national convention in Cleveland in July.

Tamara Scott, who was re-elected Saturday along with Steve Scheffler as GOP national committee members, said the differences 'may be a little intense among our own.” But she stressed the party is 'not in a civil war” as it approaches a 'fierce battle” with Democrats in the general election.

‘New direction'

Grassley touted a 'new direction” in his convention appearance where he was greeted with a standing ovation for his fight to block President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominee. He said Americans can't afford four more years of excessive federal taxation, regulation and spending ,'and that's what they're going to get if Hillary's elected.”

Grassley said he expects a tough re-election campaign in which 'I'm going to have millions of dollars in negative money spent on me.” That is going to force him to 'produce more resources” and work harder, wiser and smarter.

'I'm going to be running my own campaign,” Grassley said in an interview. 'I'm not going to be running from Trump. I'm going to be agreeing with Trump sometimes, I'm going to be disagreeing sometimes, and that's just the way that our constitutional system was to operate.”

Unity process

Jeff Kaufmann, chairman of the Republican Party of Iowa, called Saturday's event 'another step toward unity” in a process that is unfolding in stages.

'We're never going to have 100 percent unity,” said Kaufmann. 'We didn't have unity for Ronald Reagan in 1980 - that was a long, long process as well. We are a lot farther ahead than I thought we would be at this point and I will guarantee you we are a heck of a lot further ahead than the lady under federal investigation and the socialist. They're going to have mud-wrestling here at the Democratic convention.”

Trump snubbed?

One Democrat, Tom Hill, 68, a retired ironworker from Cedar Rapids who said he previously had attended 11 Democratic state conventions and supported Bill and Hillary Clinton, said he switched parties to support Trump. But he was disappointed by the GOP process that approved a slate of 15 Republicans to the national convention - many of whom backed Cruz in the Iowa caucuses - that he felt snubbed the Trump delegates.

'I wanted to make sure that Trump got a delegate. I'm here today really irritated about this,” Hill told reporters. 'They snow-stormed this whole thing all the way through. They didn't give Trump his fair share of delegates. They shafted him.”

‘Cruz is out'

But Tana Goertz, a Trump senior adviser in Iowa and a former contestant on Trump's TV show 'The Apprentice,” said she supported the 'unity slate” that was approved at Saturday's proceedings. She said a majority 'have already come over and are Trump supporters,” so it will not be a contested convention in Cleveland as many previously believed.

'Cruz is out. That party's over,” Goertz said. 'They can vote for Donald Trump or they can vote for Hillary Clinton, and everybody in here wants to vote for Donald Trump.”

Delegate breakdown

Iowa GOP rules stipulate the 30 delegates at the national convention must vote based on the outcome of the Iowa caucuses, meaning that Cruz will get eight delegate votes as the Feb. 1 Iowa winner. Trump and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio each will get seven votes, fourth-place finisher Ben Carson will get three and Jeb Bush, Carly Fiorina, Mike Huckabee, Rand Paul and John Kasich each will get one delegate vote from Iowa.