What’s Happening:

The California Republican Party has long fought for relevance in an increasingly-leftist state. In large, nationwide elections, the last state Republicans look to for leadership in California. This is because the state used to have a strong conservative base, but has been blindsided by radical Democrats for many years.

Now, it appears the state is making a move to bring in support from one heavy hitter. The Republican leadership in the state has just changed a critical rule that will affect the upcoming GOP primaries. And it appears the new rule will give the GOP frontrunner a big advantage. But it will box out anyone else trying to get an electoral edge.

From Daily Wire:

Under the new rule, any Republican candidate who receives more than 50% of the vote will receive all of California’s delegates — 169 in total, more than any other state…

However, if no candidate reaches 50%, state delegates will be allocated proportionally based on how candidates performed in the statewide vote. The executive committee approved the rule in a 53-16 vote.

The California Republican Party, in a 53-16 vote, changed how primary votes are allocated to a presidential candidate. The new rule will give all the party delegates to the person who gets 50% of the vote.

This is a huge advantage to a candidate that is polling at 50%. Gee, who is polling at 50% at the moment? According to some polls, that is Donald Trump, with most other GOP candidates polling well below 50%.

Under this new rule, as long as Trump gets 50% of the state’s votes, he will scoop up all of California’s Republican delegates. Meaning, nobody else has a ghost of a chance of winning CA delegates, as long as Trump wins 50% of the vote.

Some have criticized this rule, as it gives Trump a major advantage in the state. Even if another candidate gets 49%, they will get zero delegates under this rule.

You can see how this rule was meant to win over Trump’s support of the state. This means he has an incentive to campaign in California during the primaries, bringing attention–and big-ticket rallies–to a state often overlooked by Republicans.

But this also discourages other candidates from campaigning in California, making the state largely irrelevant in the nationwide primary race. One critic of the rule change says this will encourage candidates to “go to other states and ignore California in the primary, as they ignore California in the general election.”

How this change will affect the primaries will only be seen, however, next year.

Key Takeaways:

• The California Republican Party made a rule change that will largely benefit Donald Trump.
• Under the new rule, all of the state’s delegates will go to the candidate that wins only 50% of the vote.
• Critics say this rule change will discourage other candidates from campaigning in CA, much the same as in the general election.

Source: Daily Wire