At least seven Trump delegates have resorted to crowdfunding to send themselves to the convention, setting up pages on GoFundMe, a popular fundraising platform, asking for sums ranging from $1,000 to to $10,000.
While their tenacity is a testament to the enthusiasm surrounding Trump’s campaign, it also calls into question whether his operation is organized enough to secure his nomination on the convention floor in Cleveland if he fails to earn the 1,237 delegates necessary to win outright before July. Because if his delegates don’t show, they don’t get to vote.
These resourceful Trump backers include a former US Navy submariner in the Vietnam War, a chairman of a local North Carolina Republican party, a Texas real estate agent and a cell phone salesman from Maine.
“From what I was told, everything is out of pocket,” Mark Parsons, 43, a veteran and Uber driver who lives in Las Vegas and was elected to serve as a delegate at his county’s convention, told The Daily Beast in a phone interview. Parsons couldn’t remember who, specifically, had told him that, but he said he learned it at his county’s convention.
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