Last week, Indiana Republicans released a list of the 57 delegates who will represent Hoosiers at the GOP's national convention in July.
In most presidential election years, those names would attract little attention. After all, in most presidential election years, the party's nominee for the November ballot is clear months before the convention, and convention delegates often play a role that's more ceremonial than decisive.
But 2016 is not like most presidential election years.
While New York businessman Donald Trump is the Republican front-runner, it appears unlikely he'll win enough votes from state primaries and caucuses to secure the nomination before July. If that happens, those little-known convention delegates — 2,472 of them, including the 57 from Indiana — will end up choosing the party's nominee for president.
As Rudy Yakym, one of three delegates who will represent north-central Indiana's 2nd Congressional District, said, "2016 may prove to be a year where being a delegate carries with it a tremendous amount of responsibility."
This year will be the first time Yakym, a Granger resident, has been a delegate to the national convention. The 2nd District's other two Republican delegates — Larry Garatoni, of Granger, and Carol McDowell, of Elkhart — have been delegates to past conventions.
Several other Indiana delegates reported being harassed by Trump's supporters last week after they told a Politico reporter that they'd rather support Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich. The article claimed that "Indiana GOP insiders are working to engineer slates of delegates ... that will turn their backs on Trump at a contested convention in July."
The three delegates from the 2nd District — which covers all or part of 10 counties in north-central Indiana — haven't publicly expressed any opinions about particular candidates.
The results of Indiana's primary on May 3 will determine how the state's delegates vote on the first ballot at the convention July 18-21 in Cleveland.