In three days, Republicans from across the country will gather together for their national convention, where they will nominate Donald Trump for president. As Democrats fight within their own party, the GOP is using that to its advantage. NBC Chicago’s Political Reporter Mary Ann Ahern reports.
In three days, Republicans from across the country will gather together for their national convention, where they will nominate Donald Trump for president.
As Democrats fight within their own party, the GOP is using that to its advantage.
Fences are already up in Wisconsin's largest city as Milwaukee prepares to welcome 50,000 visitors, reporters and delegates. That includes delegates from Illinois, like Cook County GOP's Aaron Del Mar.
“There's going to be a lot of unity throughout the Illinois Republican Party. We've got one of the most diverse delegations that we've ever had,” he said.
The 2024 Republican National Convention will be former President Donald Trump's third consecutive convention. The big unanswered question: Who will be the vice presidential candidate standing beside him?
In 2016, the last time Republicans gathered in person for their nominating convention, the story was the party's division over Trump. Now, Republicans say they're unified unlike their Democratic counterparts.
“We're kind of sitting back, we're having our popcorn and watching the self-destruction of the Democratic Party on a national level,” Del Mar said. “That debate performance that President Biden had -- we're over here rooting for him to keep on going. We like seeing Biden at the top of the ticket because I think that solidifies our victory in November."
Mordecai Lee, a political analyst and professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, said the GOP is strategically keeping a low profile while Democrats spar over whether Biden will remain their nominee.
“I think that the quietness of the Republican Party leading up to the RNC is very deliberate. It certainly seems to be deliberate by former President Trump,” Lee said.
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Milwaukee made it to the final two contender cities to hold the convention, then won the bid after Nashville dropped out in the summer of 2022. Lee said the decision to hold the convention in Milwaukee was strategic in targeting swing voters, especially suburban women, in a battleground state.
In Wisconsin, Trump beat Hillary Clinton in 2016 by 22,748 votes. Then, four years later, Biden beat Trump by 20,682 votes.
“I would say a good 10 percent of Wisconsinites are still authentically independent and authentically undecided,” Lee explained.
Wisconsin Republicans, like GOP voters nationwide, want the focus on immigration and inflation. As far as who Trump’s running mate will be, many names have been tossed around, with the reported frontrunners being U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance from Ohio, Gov. Doug Burgum from North Dakota and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio from Florida.
“President Trump has a number of great options. I think at the end of the day, it is a man or a woman who can speak to the policies that are needed to get our country back on track,” said U.S. Rep Bryan Steil, R-Wisconsin.
Political analysts, meanwhile, believe as Trump chooses, he likely won’t forget the actions on Jan. 6, 2020, of his former running mate, former Vice President Mike Pence.
“I think what he's looking for is not only somebody who will be hyper loyal, in other words, more loyal than Pence was, but somebody who would not steal the spotlight from him and somebody who would not spend the next four years running for president in (2028),” Lee said.
The RNC will be held July 15-18 at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee.
