Inside RNC's stealth push for talk radio to save GOP

The Republican National Committee has wooed Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, Glenn Beck and other prominent conservative talk radio hosts to prevent the party breaking apart.

It has failed so far to win over any high-profile converts from the anti-Trump and Never Trump Republican factions, but party bosses still hope their efforts can build a winning infrastructure by the general election, in November.

The party began reaching out to powerful conservative voices months ago, when the prospect of a contested convention, and grassroots confusion and anger about the primary process, became a gathering storm over Republican chances of taking the White House.

The party brass took those conservative voices for granted in the past, but when Republicans headed to Florida for their spring meeting in late April, RNC bigwigs took a detour to visit Limbaugh.

While the media spotlight was on battles over convention rules and delegate selection, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, and chief strategist and communications director Sean Spicer, were among top Republicans who met Limbaugh at his studio.