Republicans from across the country will gather in Milwaukee later this month to officially nominate former President Donald Trump as their candidate in the 2024 election, marking the first time the RNC has been held in The Badger State.
The convention will come as Republicans seek to regain control of the U.S. Senate and the White House, and Wisconsin could very well play a pivotal role in those aspirations.
Here is some of the history behind the convention, and what the convention’s site has told us in previous years about the ultimate presidential election winner.
When is the 2024 RNC?
The 2024 Republican National Convention will take place July 15-18 at Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum.
How many times has Milwaukee hosted the convention?
This will mark the first time Milwaukee has hosted the Republican National Convention, and actually marks the second consecutive election cycle where the city was involved in the convention season.
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The city had been chosen to host the 2020 convention, but due to the COIVD pandemic most of the event was held in a remote fashion.
Hosting the 2024 RNC will make Milwaukee one of 18 cities to host both the Democratic and Republican conventions.
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Which city has hosted the most RNC’s?
Surprisingly, the city that has hosted the Republican National Convention the most since 1832 is Chicago, which has done so 14 times, most recently in 1960.
Chicago has also hosted the most Democratic conventions, and will host its 11th later this summer.
The next-closest city to Chicago in terms of conventions hosted is Philadelphia, which has welcomed Republicans to the City of Brotherly Love on five occasions.
How have Republicans fared in the states that have hosted the convention?
In recent years, the GOP has targeted battleground states when choosing where to host its conventions, but that hasn’t always resulted in victories.
In fact, the Republicans were defeated in the host states on five straight occasions from 1996 to 2012, with Trump breaking that streak by winning in Ohio after Cleveland hosted the RNC in 2016.
Trump made it two in a row by winning North Carolina in 2020.
Since 1948, Republicans have gone 11-8 in the state where they’ve hosted their convention, including a four-election winning streak thanks to Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush between 1980 and 1992.
What role does Wisconsin typically play in the presidential election?
Since 1964, Wisconsin has voted for the presidential winner 12 of 15 times, including the last four elections in a row, according to 270toWin.
President Joe Biden won Wisconsin by less than 1% of the vote, with more than 3.2 million ballots cast. His ultimate margin of victory was just over 20,000 votes.
The state voted for the president on six consecutive occasions between 1964 and 1984 before backing Michael Dukakis over Bush in 1988, an election that the sitting vice president won handily.
