RNC tightens party rules, stymieing anti-abortion protests

Republicans in Milwaukee approved new party rules that will likely prevent protests of the party’s platform, after grumbling from anti-abortion activists.

At Thursday’s meeting of the RNC’s rules committee, the party raised the threshold to bring up a minority report — an official criticism of the platform — from 25% to 35% of members. To suspend rules and force a vote will require support from a majority of the 57 states and territories represented at the RNC, up from just seven.

Social conservatives had planned for worse. As the meeting began, party leaders hoped to raise the minority report threshold to 47%, a reference to how Trump, if elected, would become the 47th president. Harmeet Dhillon, a California RNC member who ran unsuccessfully for party chair in 2023, was among the members urging the 35% compromise.

But the change would likely be enough to doom a one-page minority report offered by social conservatives as a “declaration of principle,” endorsing a human life amendment to the Constitution.

The committee, which like the platform meeting was closed to press, also approved changes to the nominating process. In 2028, states with closed primaries will get a bonus delegate to the convention. This year, states that allowed non-Republicans to vote in their primaries were generally more favorable to Nikki Haley — including Vermont, where she won.