RNC Cool to Santorum Push to Change Texas Primary Rules

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Rick Santorum might need a delegate miracle, and he shouldn't expect any help from the Republican National Committee in working one.

The Santorum camp is pressing for Texas to change its delegate-allotment scheme from proportional to winner-take-all, which would allow Santorum a chance at snagging 152 delegates en masse, making up some of his deficit to Mitt Romney, and depriving Romney of any delegates in the May 29 contests. The Santorum campaign circulated a delegate-strategy memo on Thursday claiming that the Texas GOP is in the process of making this change.

But an RNC official tells ABC News that to change its delegate rules the Texas GOP would need to obtain a waiver from the RNC's executive committee, and the official said that's unlikely.

RNC bylaws gave states an Oct. 1, 2011 deadline to finalize primary dates and delegate plans. Texas already obtained a waiver for that deadline, as its primary was repeatedly delayed by a federal court case over redistricting; however, that waiver only applied to Texas's primary date, not its delegate-allocation rules.

The Texas GOP, meanwhile, appears to be officially uninterested in pursuing such a change, despite the push by some Santorum supporters in the state and elsewhere. A Texas GOP spokesman told ABC News that, as of now, the party's proportional delegate-allocation plans stand.

With 155 total delegates, Texas will be second only to California in representation at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., this August.