Curly Haugland

Erling "Curly" Haugland is an American politician and businessman; since 1999 he serves as a Republican National Committeeman for North Dakota. Haugland was elected chairman of the North Dakota Republican Party in 1999; he served one term and has since been elected to three four-year terms as committeeman. Since 2009 Haugland is a member of the RNC Rules Committee. He previously served as an advisory board member of the Bank of North Dakota (1993-2000), and Commissioner of the Northern Great Plains Rural Development Commission (1994-1996).

In 2008, Haugland set up an unsuccessful run for chairman of the Republican National Committee, in part because he was against a proposal that would allow an outsider to hold the position. Haugland was one of a group of RNC members who fought then U.S. President George W Bush’s move to install U.S. Senator Mel Martinez as the RNC chairman. Some members of the committee disliked what they said was Martinez’s lenient stance on illegal immigration. Haugland argued that the committee’s rules barred Martinez from serving as chairman because he was not one of its 168 members. The dispute ended in a compromise with Kentucky banker Mike Duncan elected chairman, and Martinez given the title of "general chairman," a position not replaced when Martinez stepped down after only 10 months in October 2007.

2016 Republican Party presidential primaries controversy

Haugland came to wider notoriety on March 16, 2016, when he said that Presidential primary elections are essentially a waste of time. Haugland made this claim in an appearance on CNBC's "Squawk Box," saying that "We (Delegates to the Republican National Convention) choose the nominee, not the voters"; on the question why the party holds primary elections, Haugland replied: "That's a very good question". Haugland went on: "The media has created the perception that the voters will decide the nomination" ... "Political parties choose their nominee, not the general public, contrary to popular belief."

On April 14, 2016, he reaffirmed his stance in an interview on NPR. When asked if the votes of people in the primaries had a say in the outcome of the primary election, he responded by saying that they were "absolutely irrelevant" since the nomination for president is dependent solely on a simple majority of the vote of the permanently seated delegates to the national convention.

In his capacity as member of the RNC Rules Committee´, Haugland sent a letter on March 11, 2016 to all convention delegates saying that convention delegates are not bound to cast their votes at the convention according to primary vote results in the first round of voting. In the letter to the delegates, Haugland says, "Without the use of force to bind the votes of delegates to the results of the primary process, primaries are nearly worthless 'beauty contests'." In March of 2016, he wrote a letter to all RNC members that said: "NEWS FLASH: All Republican Delegates to the 2016 Republican National Convention are Unbound!" Despite the fact he said all delegates are unbound, the states decide whether delegates are bound by primaries and caucuses or not. Most states bind at least some of their delegates based on the preference of the states' voters.