Yes, and the same thing happened to Ron Paul. The RNC colluded to ensure he didn't get the nomination. They actually changed rules during the convention to make sure that couldn't happen.
I'm sure if we had wikileaks of the RNC during that time, it would have revealed much of the same type of insider corruption.
> They actually changed rules during the convention to make sure that couldn't happen.
Those knife fights over party rules (especially 40 (b)) made it possible for Trump to get into the running for the nomination, according to many GOP observers. See [1] for an explanation of how.
These election results are a political pressure relief valve: significant swathes of the electorate have been systematically excluded and ignored, then they tried to organize in different ways. First culminating in Ron Paul's bid, then a different wave in Bernie Sanders' bid, and enough formed coalitions behind Trump this time around to cost both parties' establishments their desired outcomes. Ignoring such large groups of the electorate for much longer would have cost us much more in the future. There are very big chunks of the population in a lot of pain for going on decades now, and effectively ignoring that is no longer much of an option going forward.
I see China possibly facing a similar issue with their rural population at some point in the far future.
I'm sure if we had wikileaks of the RNC during that time, it would have revealed much of the same type of insider corruption.