A grassroots campaign has begun to unbind the delegates to the Republican National Convention so they can be free to nominate a candidate more worthy of the presidency than Donald Trump.

The “Free the Delegates” campaign was initiated by Kendal Unruh, a Cruz delegate from Colorado and a member of the convention rules committee.  Unruh is a high school social studies teacher and a conservative Christian with the moral firmness of solid rock.  Here she is, explaining her position in an interview on nationwide television.

The campaign began with the issuing of a delegates’ Declaration of Independence stating the case for unbinding the convention.  It reads in part:

To our fellow Republicans:

We, the undersigned, have decided to come forward “for such a time as this.”…

The rules of the Republican Party have been clear since its first convention in Philadelphia. Delegates can’t be forced to do something which violates their own conscience. Rule 38 clearly states “No delegate or alternate delegate shall be bound by any attempt of any state of Congressional district to impose the unit rule. A ‘unit rule’ prohibited by this section means a rule or law under which a delegation at the national convention casts its entire vote as a unit as determined by a majority vote of the delegation.”

The Constitution protects freedom of association. It is unconstitutional for state governments to violate the First Amendment by mandating the manner in which private citizens govern private institutions (see Cousins v. Wigoda).
About the most un-Republican thing the party of Lincoln and Reagan can do is compelling its members to violate their own conscience. And that is particularly true since ours was a party founded by those who refused to violate their consciences as one-time members of the Whig Party. Beyond simply being illegal, such an act is a repudiation of everything it means to be a Republican.

For these reasons, we the undersigned, who have been duly elected as delegates of the Republican Party to represent the interest of our fellow Republicans, consider ourselves unbound and will vote accordingly at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland July 18-21….

We delegates are the closest representation of the base of our party. We are elected officials as well as everyday activists. And because we stand on principle before all else, we are the GOP’s lifeblood.

It is time for actual Republicans to determine who our nominee will be once more. Much time, talent, and treasure has been volunteered in order to be delegates to the Republican Party and, in so doing, preserve the conservative platform for which it stands, ensure its integrity and strengthen its legacy.

Now, more than ever, with American Exceptionalism teetering on the brink of history, the American people and our cherished Constitution both need the real Republican Party to please stand up. That is our charge to keep in Cleveland, and keep it we will.

On the evening of June 19, delegates attracted by the call held a telecon, and the campaign has now taken off nationwide, breaking press in the Washington Post shortly thereafter. 

Predictably, Trump supporters have responded to the initiative with rage, exemplified by the postings found here.  I don’t think they are going to have much luck with such tactics.  This lady is not for turning.

If you want to join the campaign to free the delegates, you can do so at on Facebook at Free the Delegates 2016.

Dr. Robert Zubrin is president of Pioneer Energy of Lakewood, Colo. and the author of The Case for Mars.  The paperback edition of his latest book, Merchants of Despair: Radical Environmentalists, Criminal Pseudo-Scientists, and the Fatal Cult of Antihumanism, was recently published by Encounter Books.