The Republican National Convention in Milwaukee brought 50,000 people into the city over four days as delegates formally nominated former President Donald Trump as their 2024 candidate for president. Here & Now expanded coverage included interviews with Republican Party of Wisconsin Chair Brian Schimming Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Ben Wikler about the presidential race. Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson declared the RNC a success but also spoke to the killing of a resident outside the security zone by out-of-state police, while Angela Lang from Black Leaders Organizing for Communities criticized the convention for the shooting death of the man, who was known to be living out of a tent. Republican U.S. Senate candidate Eric Hovde highlighted his top issues in an interview. Political panelists Bill McCoshen and Scot Ross wrapped up Here & Now convention coverage with analysis of an unstable election season.
 

Brian Schimming
Chair, Republican Party of Wisconsin

• Republicans declared the RNC in Milwaukee a resounding success as it culminated with the formal nomination of former President Donald Trump. Schimming was riding high after the close of the event.
• Schimming: “I’m so proud of Milwaukee. I’m so proud of the said Wisconsin. We were able to pull off an excellent, four-day convention right here in Wisconsin. As you know I’m a native here — I’m a homie. So, I wanted this to be good for the state, for the city of Milwaukee. The security considerations were, they were just — security was great. The collaboration between the city and the county, and of course, all the law enforcement agencies, the chamber, the visitors’ bureau — just fabulous. So I’m just so excited.”

Mayor Cavalier Johnson
Mayor, City of Milwaukee

• When Milwaukee was announced as the host city for the RNC, Johnson touted the event’s economic potential and called on Republicans to spend money when visiting. Over the course of the convention, though, various restaurants and other businesses outside the security perimeter surrounding the Fiserv Forum reported considerable drops in customers, though there were also hopes that there would be longer-term financial gains. Johnson spoke to the issue of economic impact.
• Johnson: “What I can tell you is that there were a lot of people, tens of thousands that came to Milwaukee, that stayed at our hotels, that ventured into restaurants, that spent money with local vendors and left a significant amount of money here in our economy. We’ll have to go back and check in with Visit Milwaukee and those other folks to see exactly what the economic impact was. I anticipate that it was pretty hefty, though.”

Angela Lang
Executive Director, Black Leaders Organizing for Communities

• The fatal shooting of a man living in a tent outside the RNC security perimeter by Ohio police officers on the second day of the convention was devastating, Lang said. She questioned why the out-of-state law enforcement who were part of the large-scale security apparatus for the RNC were at least not accompanied by Milwaukee officers who might have de-escalated a street fight involving knives.
• Lang: “I fully believe that had the RNC not been hosted in Milwaukee, we wouldn’t have even had those out-of-state police even over there. And, I think there is calls and questions of why they were over there in the first place. I’ve seen accounts from friends and family members that all have said that if this was a local police officer, it probably would not have resulted in his death because they knew him. And, they would be more trained in de-escalation.”

Ben Wikler
Chair, Democratic Party of Wisconsin

• President Joe Biden announced July 21 that he was ending his 2024 campaign and would no longer seek another term in office. By the end of the RNC, dozens of members of Congress had asked the president to drop out, including Wisconsin Democratic U.S. Rep. Mark Pocan after the event’s final day. Fielding relentless questions about the fate of Biden’s candidacy, Wikler said the Republican convention laid bare that party’s direction.
• Wikler: “What’s so striking this week is that the Republican Party has been completely subsumed by MAGA. There’s total unity within the Republican Party leaders around a candidate who selected one of the most outspoken proponents of a 100% national abortion ban as his vice presidential candidate. There’s unity with people like Eric Hovde around Project 2025, Trump and JD Vance, their staffers going out and writing this playbook for not only ripping away access to abortion and emergency contraception, but eliminating the Department of Education, shredding any kind of protections for the environment and climate change. It’s a wholesale plan to kind of repeal the last 50 years of progress in this country.”

Eric Hovde
Republican candidate for U.S. Senate

• Political observers have said the turmoil at the top of the Democratic Party ticket could drag state-level candidates down-ballot. Wisconsin Democratic incumbent U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin is being challenged by businessman Eric Hovde, who spoke at the RNC and stressed the issues he is prioritizing.
• Hovde: “I’ve been talking about the issues all along — how we need change in our country. We have major problems with our economy, the inflation that’s impacting people’s lives, our open border, the problems that has created, crime in our communities, our health care system, the cost, the accessibility of our health care system. You know, there was a whole discussion about how the world’s in chaos right now. So I’m just staying focused on the issues.”

Bill McCoshen and Scot Ross
Republican and Democratic political analysts

• McCoshen & Ross joined PBS Wisconsin for live-streamed interviews each day of the convention — July 15, July 16, July 17 and July 18 — and will do so again for the Democratic National Convention from Aug. 19 to Aug. 22. They each reacted to Donald Trump’s speech on the final night of the convention.
• McCoshen: “Personally, I think the speech was too long. It should have been 45, 50 minutes, not 90 minutes. I think he got into rally mode there, and that’s a different beast altogether. But I think as far as the unity message, the different tone, I think he was a different man last night. Whatever happened last Saturday night with the assassination attempt had a pretty profound impact on him.
• Ross: “It culminated the most divisive, the most extreme, the most alarming national political convention I think we’ve seen — and again, embodied by the fact that for the first time in American history, a major political party has nominated a convicted felon to be its presidential nominee. That’s really says something.”

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