Ryan Pitches NC Republicans on Party Unity
The Speaker of the House wants his party to bury the hatchet before the general election.
CLEVELAND, OH — We are all on the same team.
That’s the message Speaker of the House Paul Ryan was pitching to members of the North Carolina delegation at the Republican National Convention today. It came just hours before the party nominated Donald Trump as their presidential candidate.
“We proudly cast 29 votes for the next president of the United States, the honorable Donald John Trump,” those the final words from the North Carolina delegation during the nominating role call.
Donald Trump is the official Republican nominee, after surviving a months of contentious primaries and caucuses.
Trump was victorious in the North Carolina primary, but just barely, edging rival Ted Cruz by less than 50,000 votes. The state’s 72 Republican delegates were split between five candidates, meaning North Carolina is a house divided.
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan worked the North Carolina delegation Tuesday morning, selling unity. Delegate, and Mecklenburg County commissioner, Matthew Ridenhour was in the room.
“It’s no secret that Speaker Ryan was a little slow towards endorsing Donald Trump,” said Ridenhour from the convention floor. “But this morning he actually really spoke unity.”
Ryan, who once said Trump is not his kind of conservative, was tossing out sports analogies; comparing the Trump-Cruz battle in the state to UNC-Duke.
“We as Republicans need to unite behind our party’s nominee,” said Ridenhour. “He might not have been all of our first choice, but at this point we need to support the nominee.”
But Ryan only mentioned Donald Trump once in a 15 minute talk, spending most of his time pitching the group on the need to come together to stop Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
“You’ve got to call out your opponent, and attack them on the issues, and hit them where they’re vulnerable,” said Ridenhour of Ryan’s remarks.
North Carolina could be a key swing state in the general election. President Obama won the state, and its 15 electoral votes, in 2008. Republican candidate Mitt Romney won in 2012.
