Jim Worthington on the floor of the RNC in Cleveland.
Credit: Jim Worthington/Facebook
Hot off an appearance on a Fox News Channel documentary on the presidential election, Newtown Athletic Club owner Jim Worthington has been a minor celebrity on the floor of the Republican National Convention (RNC) in Cleveland.
“It’s funny, [the documentary] showed me boxing and people have been recognizing me here,” Worthington said with a chuckle Wednesday as he headed to the RNC from his hotel.
Worthington’s story of how he became an elected delegate who voted for Donald Trump to be the Republican nominee for president at the RNC is a bit different than most.
“I was working out at my fitness center talking to a guy who worked in politics. I said casually it would be cool to go to Cleveland. I always used to watch the conventions with my dad and have been thinking about him since he died a year ago,” Worthington told CBS News earlier this year.
The owner of the popular Newtown Athletic Center had never before gone to a convention or even considered running for the position. However, he decided he wanted to go in 2016 and ended up making national headlines for spending a little over $30,000 to campaign for the delegate slot.
Credit: Tom Sofield/NewtownPANow.com
Worthington’s campaign was the most organized and largest delegate campaign in Bucks County’s recent political history. He utilized email blasts, social media, robo-calls, newspaper advertisements, his high school alumni page and spent at least $5,000 on red signs that dotted Bucks County and a portion of Montgomery County in spring.
And his efforts paid off, Worthington was elected to be one of Pennsylvania’s 54 “unbound” delegates for the RNC. There were 17 other delegates who were “bound” to vote for their pick for Republicans nominee.
“I did it because I wanted to protect the vote of the people,” Worthington said.
In the April primary, Eighth Congressional District Republicans overwhelmingly voted in support of Trump.
While a strong Trump supporter, federal campaign records show Worthington, an Upper Makefield resident, donated $2,700 to Hillary for America Committee, which was first noted recently by reporter James McGinnis.
Worthington chalked the donation up to a “favor” to his friend and Bucks County Democratic Party Chairman John Cordisco, a Bristol native who runs a successful law firm.
Worthington said in exchange for donating $2,700 to Clinton’s campaign, he was able to meet the former secretary of state at a January event in Philadelphia. He also said Cordisco made a $2,700 donation to Worthington’s nonprofit in exchange for the Clinton campaign donation.
“We’re friends and business partners but we don’t share political views,” Worthington said. “And I don’t hate Hillary, I just don’t agree with her politics.”
“It’s something to hold over his head,” he jokingly said.
In Cleveland, Worthington said he was enjoying his time and meeting other delegates. He said the speakers were “hitting all the right bases.”
For his first time as a delegate, Worthington said the experience was worth it.
