NC Republican delegate process could bring intrigue

By GARY D. ROBERTSON
Associated Press

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The March 15 presidential primary was the first step for North Carolina Republicans having a say in choosing their party’s presidential nominee.

Now the jockeying has started among GOP activists to pick the state’s delegates to July’s Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

Their choices may be the most important in 40 years – the last time no one locked up the nomination before the national convention.

North Carolina Republicans get 72 delegates, nearly all of them chosen at regional conventions this month and the state convention next month.

The delegates are bound during the first ballot in Cleveland to back candidates according to state primary results. That gives Trump 29 and Ted Cruz 27. But they aren’t obligated to vote that way on subsequent ballots.

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