Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus tasked a pair of longtime party loyalists to fill important convention posts Friday as worries about presumptive nominee Donald Trump continue tearing away at the GOP establishment.
Enid Mickelsen, an RNC vice chairwoman and former Utah congresswoman, will run the convention Rules Committee — which is likely to be the site of battling between anti-Trump forces and the Trump campaign if there is a move to try and free up delegates otherwise bound to the New York billionaire.
Mickelsen did not immediately return a request for comment Friday afternoon. The post has typically been reserved for party loyalists — Priebus tapped former White House chief of staff John H. Sununu to oversee the panel in 2012.
Former RNC Chairman and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour will run the convention’s Permanent Organization Committee, which oversees the formal structure of other convention committees and the convention itself. Barbour, who will co-chair the panel with Wisconsin RNC committeewoman Mary Buestrin, has been a towering figure among party regulars who was courted to run for president himself in 2012, but ultimately ruled against it.