Missouri State Republican Convention Results LIVE: Romney and Paul Win Delegates

Impact

Republicans from across Missouri will gather this weekend in Springfield to select 25 delegates to the Republican National Convention.

Missouri Republicans are awarding their presidential delegates in a multi-step process this year. Twenty-four other delegates were picked in April at a series of congressional district conventions.

Under the rules established by the state Republican Party, Ron Paul won a landslide victory in caucuses held April 28 and will have the definitive majority of delegates at the convention. Thus those delegates should be able to insure that Ron Paul has the majority of Louisiana's delegates to the National Republican Convention in Tampa, Aug. 27-30.

This result was not what the national nor the state Republican "establishments" expected and certainly not what they wanted. After all, in contradiction to their own rules, they had already declared Romney the "presumptive nominee;" had begun funding the Romney campaign; and had somehow coerced the national media into refusing to even mention the Ron Paul name.

UPDATE: Saturday 5:20 PM: Romney Wins Majority of Delegates: Mitt Romney won a majority of Missouri's delegates Saturday. 

Republicans who gathered at their state convention in Springfield approved a slate of delegates to the Republican National Convention in late August that includes 19 people bound to support Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, and six pledged to support former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum. 

When combined with the results of Missouri's eight congressional district conventions in April, Romney now has received a total of 31 delegates from Missouri, compared with 13 for Santorum, four for Texas Congressman Ron Paul and one for former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

Saturday 3:33 PM: The Daily Paul is making "a very important request."

"There is a challenge of the St. Charles County delegation, but it's a challenge that cannot be brought forth at the state convention because it came after the official date to make challenges. The idea is basically to intimidate delegates not to go, to make them think they will not be seated. They will be seated, we need their votes, so if you know a delegate to the Missouri State GOP convention, or know somebody that knows a delegate call them and make sure they attend."

Saturday 1:29 PM: Senate candidates Sarah Steelman, John Brunner and Todd Akin took the stage Saturday at the Missouri Republican State Convention in Springfield to make their case for the August primary election.

Steelman blamed President Barack Obama and Democratic Senator Calire McCaskill for "saddling the country with a national debt that is taking away freedom." Brunner declared that "freedom is stuck in reverse" in the country. And Akin said the nation's employment and economic situation "both are symptoms of an attack on freedom."

Saturday 9:57 AM: Today, 24 of Missouri’s 52 delegates to the Republican national convention will be bound and selected for the Republican nominee (the other 28 have already been decided).

U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) one of Romney’s earliest congressional supporters, said after Saturday’s convention debates, Republicans need to fully support their candidate in order to have a viable effort against President Obama in the fall campaign.

“We need to get focused on the big difference we have with the other side,” Blunt told Republicans at the Missouri Republican Party’s Friday night gala.  Reviving a theme from his 2010 campaign for Senate, Blunt said this presidential election is a “generational” moment.

After the dinner Friday night, many of the stateside candidates hosted receptions for attendees where they could meet with candidates. Earlier in the day, supporters of Republican secretary of state hopeful Shane Schoeller and attorney general candidate Ed Martin held a rally off site ahead of the convention.

Friday 3:55 PM: Event Calendar: Friday is the kickoff gala with the keynote to be delivered by U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.). 

Saturday morning, there will be speeches delivered by candidates competing for statewide offices. I

Saturday’s session, held in a convention hall, will be dominated by the 2,123 delegates and 2,123 alternates elected at the county caucuses this spring. 

Although the delegates are not officially bound to specific candidates, some were elected via slates assembled for various hopefuls.

Activists privately estimate that about a third of those delegates are supporters of Paul, who has suspended his campaign but is still active in pressing issues and influencing the platform.

Friday 2:00 PM: Ron Paul supporters have endured hostilities at other state conventions where Ron Paul has achieved similar success. In Arizona the establishment turned off the air conditioning. In Oklahoma they tried to cordon off Ron Paul supporters and shut them out of participation. In Virginia they locked them out. In Alaska they re-interpreted the rules. And Missouri is no exception, they locked the rolls in car trunks to prevent roll call votes and declared lost voice votes as won. (Hell hath no fury like a political party scorned.)

Will the state "establishment" write a new rule or interpret an old rule in such a way as to reverse the results of the April 28 caucuses? Will they resort to other mischief like that which has already occurred in other states? Or will they allow the Ron Paul campaign in Louisiana to run its course and send the Ron Paul delegates to Tampa?