Anti-Trump Group to Air TV Ads Aimed at GOP Convention Delegates

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Donald Trump speaks during a news conference at Turnberry Golf course in Turnberry, Scotland, on Friday. Photo: carlo allegri/Reuters

The effort to strip Donald Trump of the Republican presidential nomination takes to the cable television airwaves beginning this weekend with an advertisement that compares Mr. Trump unfavorably to former President Ronald Reagan.

The 30-second ad, funded by a non-profit organization called Delegates Unbound, asks GOP convention delegates to “choose your values” and “follow your conscience” by nominating someone other than Mr. Trump. It directs them to a new website aiming to organize delegates hostile to Mr. Trump.

Eric O’Keefe, a longtime Wisconsin political operative who was the political director of the Libertarian Party in 1980 when David Koch was its vice presidential candidate, founded Delegates Unbound for the purpose of defeating Mr. Trump for the GOP nomination at next month’s convention. Like a small but growing number of Republicans, Mr. O’Keefe said he believes state laws and state party rules binding delegates to a candidate based on primary or caucus results are unenforceable and would lose a court challenge.

“This idea of the preference primaries having any deep binding hasn’t been directly challenged in court,” Mr. O’Keefe said. “We’re fairly confident these are unenforceable laws.”

Mr. O’Keefe’s partner at Delegates Unbound, Dane Waters, declined to identify how much the group is spending on the ads. Because it is organized as a non-profit organization, Delegates Unbound is not required to disclose its donors.

The television ad follows a radio spot airing in Iowa targeting Steve Scheffler, one of the state’s two members of convention Rules Committee.

The Trump campaign has said Mr. Trump will be the nominee and has dismissed the dissidents’ efforts.

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