As America moves closer to the 2012 Presidential election, the Republican primary contest is suffering a setback. Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum have stated that they will stay in the race until the convention in an effort to convince Mitt Romney’s delegates to support them. Allowing the primary process to continue until the convention, which is held the last week of August, is very likely to result in a loss for the GOP and Obama’s reelection. Since the Republican convention is scheduled in the last week of August, the Republican candidate that is chosen will leave very bruised and battered with only 2 full months to challenge Obama, an incumbent President. In addition, brokered conventions often lead to discontent within the party since many people in the party will find it difficult to rally around the chosen nominee. Since the GOP primary has resulted in division and discontent at this point in the process, it is critical that we elect a candidate to represent the party so that the nominee can gain as much support as possible from those that are committed to the core issues facing this nation, i.e., balancing the budget, creating jobs, and reducing the size of government. A brokered convention also poses a fundraising problem for the selected nominee. Since republicans will be competing against a sitting President with a strong fundraising advantage, the candidate will need as much time as possible to collect donations. The sooner a candidate is chosen, the more time he will have to raise the necessary funds to compete with Obama. Note: Obama spends very little during the Republican primary, as the candidates are busy attacking each other through press coverage, TV ads, radio ads, talk shows, etc. Historically, candidates that have been chosen at a brokered convention have always lost. In the last 50 years, there have been 4 deadlocked conventions, all of which have resulted in defeat for that party. Each of these conventions resulted in a floor fight, and every candidate that survived lost the election. • In 1964, Goldwater and Rockefeller were involved in a hotly contested primary that ended in a deadlocked convention. Goldwater won the convention, but left looking very weak and eventually suffered an overwhelming defeat. • In 1968, it was the democrats’ turn to have a brokered convention. Eugene McCarthy challenged Lyndon Johnson, the sitting president, and almost defeated him in New Hampshire. Bob Kennedy later entered the race and won California (he was killed after winning that primary). Humphrey, another democratic candidate, eventually won the nomination at the brokered convention and chaos erupted -- riots in Chicago and blood in the streets. Needless to say, Humphrey lost the general election. • In 1972, the democrats had another deadlocked convention. President Nixon was in trouble and was very unpopular with the American people. During the democratic convention, George McGovern excluded all democratic officials and would not let them sit in on the convention. After he eventually won the convention, he lost in a landslide to Nixon. • In 1976, the republicans had a deadlocked convention. Gerald Ford was running for re-election, and Reagan challenged him. Reagan won the North Carolina and Texas primaries, but Ford still held the majority. Ford won the convention by a slim margin and eventually lost the general election to Jimmy Carter. There has not been another deadlocked convention in either party since 1976. At this point in the primary process, Mitt Romney holds a clear majority of the delegates. He currently has 55% of the delegates, and he has claimed more delegates than all of the other candidates combined. Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich have both stated that they would like this nomination process to continue to the convention since they both admit that they cannot win the primary before that time. The consequences of taking this race to the convention will be notable, as the GOP will lose and President Obama will be elected to a 2nd term. Please support and share this petition so that we can express our disapproval of the GOP nominee being chosen at a deadlocked convention in August of 2012.