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Coverage of the 2016 presidential election from NPR News and related blogs, including candidate profiles, interviews and talking points.On-air specials will also be broadcast as Election Day approaches, including the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary.WRVO also provides coverage of regional elections both on-air and online.

Carl Paladino to New Yorkers: Stay home if Trump doesn't win GOP ticket

Michael Mroziak
/
WBFO News

During his speech in Rome Tuesday, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump took aim at the GOP and the way some of its state organizations award their delegates. 

He lost some recent fights with rival, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, in states where delegates are not chosen by voters, like Colorado. Those setbacks have some Trump's supporter calling for him to run as a third party candidate if he loses the nomination.

Christine Falinski said she is devoted to Trump's campaign regardless if he is on the Republican ticket or if he runs as an Independent.

"Donald Trump, being the business person that he really is, I think he can get everything back on track," Falinski said. "America needs him right now."

Trump, who has flirted with a third-party run before, seemed irate Tuesday as he vented to the crowd about his frustration with the Republican Party's many rules that Cruz is using to bleed delegates from Trump. He called it a rigged system.

"That system is set up so the crooked politicians can make sure they get somebody in who's not party of," Trump said. "You know what we're doing. This is a movement, folks."

Former gubernatorial candidate and longtime Trump advocate Carl Paladino said he and other New York GOP leaders will advise voters to stay home in November if trump does not receive the party's nomination at the national convention.

"If they try to steal this election and give it to one of their cronies, alright, the people will be very, very upset," Paladino said. "They are not going to show up at election time, that's for sure. Or they may -- if Trump does a third party which we all would want him to do -- they're going to vote for Donald Trump."

New York voters will decide how many delegates each candidate receives in the primary next week, but local Republican officials will get to choose who those delegates are.

Payne Horning is a reporter and producer, primarily focusing on the city of Oswego and Oswego County. He has a passion for covering local politics and how it impacts the lives of everyday citizens. Originally from Iowa, Horning moved to Muncie, Indiana to study journalism, telecommunications and political science at Ball State University. While there, he worked as a reporter and substitute host at Indiana Public Radio. He also covered the 2015 session of the Indiana General Assembly for the statewide Indiana Public Broadcasting network.