How did Trump do with Republican delegates in Rock Hill?

Donald Trump earned the votes of all three delegates from South Carolina’s 5th Congressional District when he won the state’s primary back in February. But once the votes were counted at the district’s GOP convention on Thursday, the frontrunner had only secured the support of one of them after the first round of voting at the national convention.

When 80 voting delegates gathered at Rock Hill’s Holiday Inn this week, they took the next step in a process most voters thought ended when they cast their ballot in the GOP presidential primary. But with Republicans facing the possibility of the first contested convention in decade, where no candidate could win a majority on the first ballot, the deciding role could be played by longtime activists less well-known outside the party.

“This culminates a year-long process that is driven by people like you,” S.C. Republican Party chairman Matt Moore told the delegates from the district’s 11 counties, “by voters who elect delegates to local conventions, state conventions and now the national convention. It’s a citizen-driven process.”

Steven Blanton agrees. That’s why the Gaffney delegate, who received the most votes of any of the 23 candidates for a seat at the national convention, said he would vote for Trump even after the first convention ballot, when delegates are free to make another choice.

“As far as South Carolina goes, I’m obligated to do what they want,” Blanton said. “On primary day, they spoke loudly and firmly, particularly in my county, where over 60 percent chose Trump as their candidate.”

Although how a delegate would vote after the first ballot would seem to be the most important consideration in who to send to Cleveland this summer, it wasn’t a question put directly to the prospective delegates in Rock Hill, where speaking time for each candidate was scrapped because of the sheer number of them.

But several made their preferences known through campaign material that circulated among the delegates, highlighting their preferred presidential nominee. Shery Smith of Sumter, who also won a delegate slot, had said ahead of time that she was still loyal to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, something that may have played into her win

“There are a lot of Cruz supporters in South Carolina,” she said.

But at the same time, it helps that most of Thursday’s delegates, who were chosen by county conventions well before the primary, are longtime activists personally familiar with the people asking for their vote.

“I work hard in my county and all over the state, so a good many of them I know,” Smith said.

Blanton attributes his win to similar factors. “I would be called ‘the establishment’ here,” he said. “Because of my involvement, these are my friends and peers. I’ve been affiliated with them a long time.”

With Trump’s recent success in primaries, he may wrap up the nomination before Cleveland, and the local delegates may avoid any drama at the convention. That’s the hope of Linda McCall, the third delegate chosen in Rock Hill, who declined to say how she would vote on a second ballot.

“I may not have to worry about it,” she said. “Folks are saying this will be a historic convention, but if Trump gets the delegates, we could get a mild convention.”

Three delegates each will represent South Carolina’s seven congressional districts. The rest of the state’s delegation will be chosen at a state convention in Columbia on May 7.

But a hotly contested primary race has raised the stakes, and the visibility, of the delegate-selection process, something former state chair Chad Connelly told the convention would help the party boost engagement in the future.

“The media are promoting us now,” he said. “That means when we do precinct organization, we should be flooded with volunteers.”

This story was originally published April 29, 2016 at 6:30 PM with the headline "How did Trump do with Republican delegates in Rock Hill?."