The Vermont Republican Party is prohibited from endorsing a candidate with a felony conviction, according to the party’s publicly posted rules.
That’s a bit of a problem now, as the presumptive Republican presidential nominee was recently convicted of 34 crimes.
“The state committee shall not support or promote any candidate for elective office who is… a convicted felon,” read the rules that govern everything from party meetings to how delegates must vote at national conventions.
On social media, the party appears to be technically following the rule — there are no mentions of Donald Trump on the Vermont Republican Party Tweet or Facebook pages in the days since the former president’s historic guilty verdict in his hush-money case — but the party’s social media typically only talks about local candidates and presidential hopefuls visiting the state.
According to an archived version of the rules, the rule has been on the books since 2013, but the party appears to have changed the rules in early 2022.
According to the Internet Archive, the published rules were changed in March 2022 to allow the state commission to exempt a candidate from the rule by majority vote.
It is unclear whether such a rule will affect how the Republican Party’s Republican delegates vote at the Republican National Convention in July.
Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley won all of Vermont’s delegates but suspended her campaign in March; she has since supported Trump. Party rules dictate that delegates to the RNC are not bound if a candidate withdraws or suspends his campaign.
The Republican National Committee and Paul Dame, chairman of the Vermont Republican Party, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In 2022, when Trump announced his bid for the presidency, Dame said in a statement that he did not believe Trump was the right choice for the party.
“I believe the best thing for the future of the party is for other qualified and experienced Republicans to join the primaries so that Republican voters have a better choice in the 2024 elections,” he said.
In a statement, the Democratic National Committee suggested Vermont Republicans would support President Joe Biden in November.
“We already knew that Donald Trump was a threat to the American people and our democracy, but under the Vermont Republican Party’s own rules, Donald Trump is not even eligible for their support,” said Deputy Communications Director Abhi Rahman. to the Vermont Republican Party supporting Joe Biden in November – the only candidate with a path to 270 who has not been convicted of a crime.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
