Day 4: Dispatches from Cleveland - Alaska at the Republican National Convention

ADN reporter Erica Martinson is in Cleveland covering Alaskans and Alaska issues at the Republican National Convention. Check out the daily blogs from Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. 

Updated: 6:45 p.m. Thursday (Alaska time)

The nominee

Donald Trump accepted the Republican nomination for president and quickly rallied the crowd with talk of protecting Americans from crime and illegal immigrants "roaming free" and threatening U.S. citizens. A chant of "build the wall" broke out in the crowd.

'This is the moment'

Updated 6:10 p.m. Thursday (Alaska time)

Ivanka Trump drew excited applause from Alaskans in a speech often focused on supporting women and mothers. The wage gap is no longer about gender, but motherhood, she said, promising her father Donald Trump will "change labor laws put in place at a time when women were not a significant part of the workplace" and make childcare affordable. Many "politicians talk about wage equality," but Donald Trump will work to create "equal pay for equal work," Ivanka Trump said. Trump will fight to keep college graduates from being crippled by student loan debt, she said.

Final night in Cleveland underway

Updated, 5:20 p.m. Thursday (Alaska time)

The final night of the Republican National Convention has begun with a packed house.

Pastor Mark Burns had the crowd on their feet with fervent support of the "All Lives Matter" movement and animated Sunday-service-style delivery.

About half of the Alaska delegates are wearing their popular matching parkas, but the delegates are not otherwise among those decked out in red, white and blue, sequins and other patriotic gear.

Alaskans wonder about Trump's foreign policy

Updated, 2 p.m. Thursday (Alaska time)

Some Alaska delegates in Cleveland were left wondering Thursday whether presidential nominee Donald Trump will hold to typical conservative foreign policy stances after comments he made Wednesday night about dealing with NATO allies.

In a meeting with delegates Thursday morning in Beechwood, Ohio, former George W. Bush ambassador John Bolton told them to hope he surrounds himself with the right kinds of advisers and develops a "Reagan" mindset towards foreign policy.

Trump told the New York Times in an extensive interview Wednesday that under his presidency, the U.S. would not defend NATO allies in the Baltic states against Russia if they haven't "fulfilled their obligation to us." And Trump praised President Recep Erdogan of Turkey for holding back a recent coup attempt there, also saying that the U.S. has no "right to lecture" Erdogan's administration about potential civil liberties violations.

[Trump plays down US commitment to NATO allies and role in overseas crises]

Trump's comments to the Times came the same day as his vice presidential nominee, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence said in his convention speech that the U.S. would stand by its allies.

At the meeting, Alaska GOP delegates asked Bolton for his thoughts on how conservative Republican voters should reconcile their concerns about a strong national defense given Trump's statements, and whether he had faith that Trump would surround himself with the right advisers.

Trump said that "he wasn't going to lecture" Erdogan about his actions until we "think about our mess here at home," Bolton noted. "I don't myself believe we've got a missionary role in the world to create democratic societies everywhere," he said. But "I think we do have a mission in the world to protect American interests," Bolton told the Alaskans.

"And what Erdogan is doing in Turkey is a concern because it is taking Turkey out of Western orbit, potentially out of NATO, potentially aligning it with Russia, potentially making it more of a radical islamist threat in the Middle East," Bolton said. "

He advocated that conservatives take a position of "peace through strength" advocated by President Ronald Reagan. "It seems to me that if it was good enough for Ronald Reagan, it ought to be good enough for the party today," Bolton said.

As to whether Trump would surround himself with international advisers that would guide him towards a more traditional conservative stance on international relations, Bolton was unsure.

"Well I don't know who advised him. Maybe it was the same person who wrote Melania Trump's speech," he joked, referencing revelations that parts of the speech delivered by Trump's wife at the convention Monday were plagiarized from First Lady Michelle Obama's 2008 convention speech.

"One piece of advice I would give him is, please, think about the international consequences of the comments you make," Bolton said. "There's nothing like being president of the United States. You can't look cross-eyed at somebody without people commenting on it," Bolton said.

The former ambassador also suggested that "the media" is "working to get Hillary Clinton elected."

"So I think we need to keep our fingers crossed that he gets the right people around, and he projects that Reaganism, Reagan's optimist view of our role in the world. I think that's what the American people want," Bolton said.

Palin says Cruz's career is over

Updated 1:30 p.m. Thursday (Alaska time)

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin lambasted Texas Sen. Ted Cruz for his non-endorsing performance at the GOP convention Wednesday, saying voters would rule him out as a typical, dishonest politician.

In a statement sent to conservative Breibart News, Palin said that Cruz broke his pledge to support the GOP nominee, now Donald Trump and it "was one of those career-ending 'read my lips' moments."

"I guarantee American voters took notice and felt more unsettling confirmation as to why we don't much like typical politicians because they campaign one way, but act out another way. That kind of political status quo has got to go because it got us into the mess we're in with America's bankrupt budgets and ramped up security threats," Palin wrote.

"It's commonplace for politicians to disbelieve their word is their bond," but they will see, "it makes all the difference in the world to us," she wrote.

About last night

Updated, 12:20 p.m. Thursday (Alaska time)

In Cleveland on Thursday morning, many Alaskan delegates were still working through what to think about what happened Wednesday night at the Republican National Convention.

Sen. Ted Cruz — the candidate who came in second to GOP nominee Donald Trump but who won the Alaska caucuses last spring — was booed off the stage when he told the audience to vote their conscience and failed to endorse Trump. Trump, reportedly knowing what was coming, entered the back of the arena at the tail end of the speech, drawing the cameras to himself.

Cruz faced a divided and angry Texas delegation Thursday morning — a speech and conversation run live across cable news networks. Cruz doubled down on his decision, saying he, like many others, is still watching and listening and deciding for whom he will vote, though it would not be presumed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

But some Alaska delegates — particularly Cruz delegates — felt that Cruz had stepped back from his party and essentially maligned Trump at his own event. Republican delegates were shocked at what they saw as flagrant disrespect by Cruz.

Alaska Republican Party Chairman Tuckerman Babcock had given up his floor seat to an alternate, and was sitting further away from the stage with delegates from another state. "And I actually heard a woman behind me say, 'Come on Ted. Say it. You gotta say it. Please Ted, I supported you.' And then she started crying," Babcock said. Babcock is a delegate for Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.

Some of the Alaska delegates "started crying a little bit too," said Trump delegate Kathy Hosford. "They just felt extremely bad. They wanted him to say it as well," Hosford said. She couldn't quite figure out herself why Cruz would not endorse his party's presidential nominee.

"And then everybody started booing," Babcock said.

To be sure, there are indications the boos were led by the Trump campaign's floor whips, the staffers, observers and advocates standing throughout the aisles of on the convention floor wearing neon green hats. Throughout the last several days, the "Lock her up!" calls referencing presumed Democratic nominee have often been led by and loudest from the whips.

But the shock and disbelief in the crowd seemed heavily rooted in the Cruz delegates that were there. Those that had supported his presidential campaign were the ones most taken aback by Cruz's decision to take the stage during prime time — not long before the vice presidential candidate's premier speech — and deny his blessing to the man the party chose.

Babcock had traded his floor seat so that one of Alaska's alternate delegates, Nick Stepovich of Fairbanks, could get a closer view of his favorite candidate. "He's an enthusiastic Ted Cruz alternate," Babcock said. Stepovich, despite the fracas on the convention floor over the state's lost votes, had gone out and had his own signs made this week: "Cruz delegates for Trump."

"And he was so proud of Ted Cruz during that speech, and then it ended that way,," Babcock said. "At least the Cruz delegates know what to do."

[Alaska delegates say they were cheated out of their votes]

The idea that Cruz would endorse Trump from the stage "was so obvious to me that I was left speechless," Babcock said. "I didn't boo. I just was speechless that anyone would take a convention that you have in the palm of your hand and just throw it away. And I have never even heard of a prime time speaker being booed off stage." Babcock noted that his top three choices for president were Ben Carson, Cruz and Rubio. "But I am supporting Donald J. Trump and Mike Pence," he said.

Former State Sen. Dave Donley, a Cruz delegate, also found himself speechless in the moment.

"I'm going to vote for Mr. Trump," Donley said. "I was just puzzled. The whole bus ride back, I sat in the back of the bus and I tried to figure out why. It didn't make any sense to me… I still haven't figured out why yet."

Cruz hinted at why in his talk with his own state's delegates Thursday morning, noting malicious things that Trump has said about Cruz's wife and father. Trump mocked the physical appearance of Cruz's wife, Heidi, and suggested that his father was involved in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Cruz said Thursday that he could have "turned tail and run and not come to the convention" like many of his Republican colleagues, notably two former candidates — Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and Ohio Gov. John Kaisch, a pointed snub given the convention is in Cleveland.

In response, Babcock asked: "At this point, why would anyone care what Ted Cruz has to say?"

Hosford said that what Cruz did had only unified the party more: "Even in the aftermath of what Mr. Cruz said last night, I heard many Cruz supporters say this just gets them stronger behind Mr. Trump."

The choice for president is essentially binary at this point, Babcock noted: either Trump or presumed Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

Clinton's campaign team could not resist making the same point. Not long after the speech, her Twitter account quoted Cruz, urging her followers to vote their conscience.