The Colorado delegate heading a movement aimed at keeping the GOP from nominating Donald Trump for president vowed that the Republican National Convention will see “more insurgency” from Trump critics after a rancorous afternoon of procedural votes.

“We don’t live in a dictatorship, we don’t live in a banana republic,” Castle Rock Republican Kendal Unruh told reporters soon after members of the Colorado delegation had walked off the floor after they’d lost a fight to demand a state-by-state roll call on adopting the convention rules.

“What you’re seeing is tyrannical types of maneuvers that have been applied to make sure the will of the people isn’t reflected. Have a roll call vote!” Unruh said.

After losing a rules fight in a committee at the end of last week, Trump foes on Monday submitted petitions attempting to force a roll call vote on the rules but U.S. Rep. Steve Womack of Arkansas, who was chairing the convention, held a voice vote and declared the rules had been approved.

The anti-Trump delegates were unlikely to win a roll call vote but Republicans aligned with Trump hoped to avert what could be an embarrassing spectacle on the first day of the RNC.

Under party rules, the critics had to submit petitions from a majority of delegates from at least seven states in order to force the vote. Unruh’s allies say they turned in petitions from 10 states – Alaska, Colorado, Iowa, Maine, Minnesota, Utah, Virginia, Washington and Washington, D.C. – despite their messenger, former U.S. Sen. Gordon Humphrey of New Hampshire, having to chase down an RNC official in order to turn them in.

“Call the roll, call the roll,” Trump opponents shouted, while the billionaire’s supporters shouted back, “USA! USA!”

But as the crowd of delegates grew louder in support and opposition to the procedural move, Womack announced that enough petition signers from three states had withdrawn their names that they no longer cleared the required threshold.

Unruh, who leads the Free the Delegates organization and is a supporter of former Trump rival Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, sounded determined to keep the fight going.

“They quashed the voice of the people,” she said. “Obviously, the delegates wanted a roll call vote, which is a fair part of the process – take the roll call vote! So we submitted the petitions. We have a right to know which petitions were not filed, we have a right to know who withdrew, and that’s part of the process under the House process and (the chairman) should have addressed who withdrew.”

She acknowledged there was intense whipping going on , including calls by national GOP chair Reince Priebus urging signers to withdraw their names, but lamented that her compatriots weren’t allowed to examine the petitions to see who had backed out.

“Once again, the system’s rigged in order to make sure that Donald Trump gets this nomination,” she said. “Donald Trump needs to earn our support, he needs to earn our votes, because he cannot coerce the votes in a general election, and that’s what he’s doing here.”

Unruh acknowledged that she won’t vote for Trump if he’s the nominee but emphasized that doesn’t mean she support Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, adding that’s why she believes it’s imperative that Republicans nominate a different candidate.

“You can’t force people in the general election to vote for you. And he’s not earned the trust of the women’s vote, he’s not earning the trust of the minority vote, he’s lost the swing voters, the Trump factor is affecting all of our races down ballot, including Congress,” Unruh said. “We’re losing the branding of our party, we’re losing what it means to be a Republican.”

She said she had been disturbed since early in the primaries when Trump said he wanted to reorient the GOP as a workers party and not the conservative party opposed to the more liberal Democrats.

“By his own admission, he doesn’t need conservatives to win. What you’re seeing here is a simplification of that – he doesn’t want conservatives in the party. So we’ll honor that. Let him do without us,” she said.

She didn’t specify when the insurgents would strike again but promised it would get the attention of national Republicans.

“So we play by the rules and in order to game the system, they had to make sure the dissension is quelled,” she said, shaking her head. “It doesn’t smooth things over, it actually makes things explode. Unfortunately it isn’t over, and we’re going to hold the party accountable for the way that we’ve been treated.”

– ernest@coloradostatesman.com