CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Donald Trump won a resounding victory in the Mountain State, but his state co-campaign manager said the delegates he won are even more essential for July’s Republican National Convention.
“Even more important was our effort to put together a slate of delegates, to take 34 delegates, all the delgates we have to Cleveland, to be able to say the great state of West Virginia pledges all its delegates Donald J Trump, that’s big news,” said Mike Stuart.
Stuart said most of the delegates that won in Tuesday’s primary were on the slate put out by the Trump campaign, and all of them were pledged to Trump.
“It was a sweeping, sweeping victory,” said Stuart of Trump winning all 55 counties. “Here’s what I would say is thanks to our staff and volunteers. I know there’s been some discussion around the country that Donald Trump’s ground game isn’t up to snuff. I can tell you that the ground game for Donald Trump in West Virginia is his best ground game in the entire nation.”
The delegate “cheat sheet” put out by the campaign helped voters navigate a long and confusing ballot, Stuart said.
“We have the most confusing ballot perhaps in the history of the country, certainly in the history of West Virginia. We should never go into an election again with a Republican ballot that’s six pages long,” Stuart said. “We worked awfully hard to make sure voters knew how to apply that ballot and vote the right way.”
Stuart made a plea to Bernie Sanders supporters, encouraging those backing the Vermont senator to consider voting Trump.
“These super delegates (in the Democratic primary), it’s unfortunate. Because if you look at pledged delegates, Bernie Sanders is running a marvelous campaign,” he said. “I would tell those folks, you’re not going to win the nomination over there. You need to join our campaign.”
He described Trump’s delegate sweep as “remarkable”, considering there were over 300 delegates on the ballot, with some pledged to other candidates. Stuart said that Trump’s energy policy, and his promise to “put miners back to work,” was not necessarily anti-environment.
“For some reason, there’s become this myth that you can’t be for the environment if you’re for coal and for natural gas. That’s false,” Stuart said. “What we’ve found in Washington is that they’re no longer our friends; they’re our adversaries. They’re trying to shut down our jobs. They are shutting down our jobs.”
U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito refused to immediately endorse Trump following his overwhelming victory in the Mountain State Tuesday. Instead, she scheduled a meeting with him on Capitol Hill Thursday to learn more about the specifics of his policies.
Sanders also won the West Virginia Democratic primary Tuesday, picking up 18 delegates to Hillary Clinton’s 11.