Most California Delegates Reject Ted Cruz’s Speech

CLEVELAND, Ohio — Most of the 172-member California delegation to the Republican National Convention seemed to reject Ted Cruz’s speech on Wednesday evening, in which he refused to endorse GOP nominee Donald Trump, saying instead: “Vote your conscience.”

One delegate, Boyd Smith, told Breitbart News’ Neal Munro: “It doesn’t bother me … We’re allowed out own agency to say what we say … I don’t think there’s a split … people are entitled to express their views.”

Most others, however, disagreed.

The East Bay Times noted:

“We thought Cruz was saying all the right things,” said Ann Marie Villacana, a delegate from Los Angeles. “But when he said (that), we began to shout ‘Get out! Get out!'”

Boos rained down on Cruz from California delegates in the front of the convention floor to guests filling up the nose bleed seats.

…

The episode was tough to watch for Vanila Singh, a Woodside resident who had been a Cruz delegate before joining Trump’s slate.

“I’m disappointed,” said Singh, who couldn’t bring herself to boo for her former pick for president. “I just think people want unity.”

The paper added that “many delegates felt Cruz had toyed with their emotions, giving a long speech about conservative values they thought was heading toward an endorsement that never came.”

The California delegation was largely hand-picked by the Trump campaign, and was placed in the front of the convention hall to act as a block to any anti-Trump effort. So the reactions to Cruz’s speech were almost guaranteed to be negative.

Still, many of the delegates had once been Cruz supporters, even if they ultimately chose Trump. They wanted to hear Cruz speak for them, to explain their own decisions to put the primary behind them and unite behind the ticket.

That did not happen.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. His new book, See No Evil: 19 Hard Truths the Left Can’t Handle, will be published by Regnery on July 25 and is available for pre-order through Amazon. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.