US election 2016: Scott Walker says Republican convention delegates should 'vote the way they see fit'

The Wisconsin Governor is seen as a possible alternative to Donald Trump, should Republican delegates try to deny the property mogul the presidential nomination

Scott Walker announces his exit from the presidential race in September 2015. At the time, he urged other Republicans to do the same, so that the party could consolidate around a candidate to defeat Donald Trump. ((Getty Images))

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has said delegates at next month’s Republican convention ought to be permitted to vote with their conscience, even if it means defying the primary voters who have chosen Donald Trump as the party’s presumptive presidential nominee. Mr Walker, who is himself a convention delegate, said “delegates are and should be able to vote the way they see fit,” the Associated Press reported.

Speaking in Wisconsin on Tuesday, the Governor said he would act according to his state Republican party’s rules and vote for Texas Senator Ted Cruz in the convention’s first ballot; Mr Cruz won the Wisconsin primary. Mr Walker has been named as a potential replacement for Mr Trump in the event that convention delegates overturn the primary results and deny the billionaire property magnate the nomination.

While that scenario remains unlikely, the organisers of a renewed Republican effort to dethrone Mr Trump are seeking to alter party rules by adding a “conscience clause”, which would allow so-called “bound” delegates at the July convention in Cleveland to vote as they wish, regardless of the primaries. House Speaker Paul Ryan, the highest-ranking Republican in Congress and the convention chairman, has said he would not interfere in such an effort.

Speaking to NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, Mr Ryan said it was “not my place to decide” whether delegates ought to be bound or unbound. “It is not my job to tell delegates what to do, what not to do, or to weigh in on things like that. They write the rules. They make their decisions,” he said. “The last thing I would do is tell anybody to do something that’s contrary to their conscience.” Mr Walker said Mr Ryan’s comments were “legitimate”.

Admired by leading Republicans for having forced through conservative reforms in traditionally blue Wisconsin, Mr Walker was one of the top seeds for the GOP presidential nomination. Instead, he became one of the early victims of the Trump phenomenon, exiting the presidential race in September 2015, months before the primaries began. At the time, he urged his rivals to consider joining him, so that the party could consolidate behind an anti-Trump candidate.

More recently, Mr Walker pledged to support Mr Trump as the presumptive nominee, but then back-tracked after the reality TV star launched a racially tinged attack on the federal judge overseeing a fraud lawsuit against Trump University. Mr Trump “has been saying things that run directly at odds with our core beliefs and principles in this country,” Mr Walker said.