Senior GOP Official Says the Party Will Decide the Nominee: 'Media Has Created the Perception That the Voters Will Decide the Nomination

A member of the Republican National Committee's rules-making body said Wednesday that ultimately the party will decide who the GOP nominee is, not voters.

"The media has created the perception that the voters will decide the nomination," Curly Haugland, who sits on the RNC rules committee, said in an interview with CNBC. "That's the conflict here."

"The political parties choose their nominees, not the general public, contrary to popular belief," Haugland added.

The senior GOP official even questioned the purpose of holding primary elections. When asked what the purpose of the preliminary elections is, he remarked, "That's a very good question."

Despite billionaire Donald Trump's overwhelming Republican primary victories on Super Tuesday 3 — save for John Kasich's win in Ohio — the odds of a contested convention continue to go up since Trump has secured only half of the 1,237 delegates required for the Republican nomination.

Given the fact that the majority of primaries from now until the convention will allot delegates proportionally, it will be extremely hard for Trump or Texas Sen. Ted Cruz to lock-up the nomination prior to July's convention.

But even if Trump does, Haugland said that it doesn't really matter because only the votes cast at the convention count.

"The primary votes are not considered [at the convention]," he said, "it's the delegates' votes."

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