Westfield – Westfield City Councilor Dan Allie was elected as a delegate to the Republican National Convention at a caucus for voters from the First Congressional district in Ludlow on Saturday. 200 people participated in the caucus. At the same time across the state, 27 of the state’s 42 GOP delegates were elected, three each in caucuses held in the state’s nine congressional districts.
In addition to the delegates determined at the caucuses, 12 at-large delegates will be elected by the Massachusetts Republican State Committee, and the remaining 3 slots will be taken by the state chairman and the National Committeeman and Committeewoman of the Republican National Committee from Massachusetts.
DAN ALLIE
Based on the results of the March 1 primary, the Massachusetts delegates will be allocated in the following way: 22 delegates for Donald Trump, 8 delegates for John Kasich, 8 delegates for Marco Rubio, and 4 delegates for Ted Cruz, according to the Massachusetts Republican Party.
Allie was elected in the first vote in Ludlow, along with Holyoke City Council President Kevin Jourdain. A third delegate, William Gillmeister of Brookfield, a former state committeeman was elected on the second vote.
Allie ran on both the Anti-Establishment Liberty and Cruz slates, but he was elected to fill one of the two Trump slots for the First Congressional District. The third slot that was filled by Gillmeister was for Ted Cruz.
“I may be the only person in the state to win a Trump slot, who was not on a Trump slate,” Allie said.
Massachusetts delegates are bound on the first ballot, and their votes are cast for them. Allie’s vote will go to Donald Trump. If it goes to a second vote, then he can choose who to vote for on the second ballot.
“I’m enthusiastic about the process that our Founding Fathers gave us,” Allie said.
After Cruz announced that he would be suspending his campaign on Tuesday, Allie said he was disappointed.
“We have a lot of talented candidates, but 17 is too many to focus on. I was already disappointed at this point, like what happened to Scott Walker,” Allie said, adding that’s why his focus is on the grassroots in his work for the Republican Party.
Allie said Cruz’s announcement doesn’t change anything for the convention. The first vote will still go to the candidates that won the slots.
“They just suspended their campaigns. It’s a process,” Allie said.
This will be the second trip to a national convention for Allie. He was elected as a delegate to the 2012 convention in Tampa. He was also elected Westfield Republican City Chairman in early April. That group meets the second Monday of the month at 7 pm at the East Mountain Country Club.
“A lot can happen in two months, and at a convention. It is up to us the living, to do all we can to be the heart and soul of our political parties and fight for a place at the table, to be able to think and decide for ourselves who our candidates are,” he said.
