Rina Shah Bharara, an Indian American Republican convention delegate, who had said she might prefer Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump has been stripped of her slot. Bharara, 32, was one of 19 people elected at the D.C. party convention in March to serve as delegate to the national GOP convention. She ran as a Marco Rubio delegate and was the second-leading vote-getter.
Republican Party officials also said, Bharara had lied about her residency. According to reports, an investigation determined Bharara is a Virginia resident and therefore ineligible to be a D.C. delegate, said Patrick Mara, executive director of the District of Columbia’s GOP.
Bharara is reported to have acknowledged that she has homes in northern Virginia and the District and that she splits her time between the two, but said her District residency is legitimate. She said the residency issue is a pretext for removal by party officials upset she said she might prefer Clinton over Trump. “This is all because they’re trying to appease people from other states in response to my anti-Trump comments,” she is said to have told the media.
In an interview with The Associated Press Bharara was quoted to have said that she would vote for Clinton over Trump. “I think Hillary would be better for our country,” she said then. “I personally think she is safer than this renegade crazy person.”
