It’s just 31 days until the opening of the Republican Party’s 2024 national convention in downtown Milwaukee. But who’s counting? Republican Party of Wisconsin Chairman Brian Schimming, that’s who.
It takes a lot of time, people, and money to put on one of the biggest shows in politics. And the RPW, the Republican National Committee, and an army of GOP staff and volunteers have been working nearly around the clock to make sure the mid-July presidential nominating party runs like clockwork.
Tens of thousands of people are expected to descend on Wisconsin’s largest city for the convention, scheduled for July 15-18. But officials are preparing for potentially thousands of other visitors, the left-wing protesters raising a ruckus in the Brew City. With Trump Derangement Syndrome at off-the-charts levels — as the former president prepares to accept his third GOP presidential nomination days after he’s scheduled to be sentenced in Manhattan on trumped-up political charges — Schimming admits there’s good reason to be concerned.
“Let’s be honest, Matt. They are going to have thousands of paid protesters on the streets. Paid, professional organizers trying to close down streets, hotels that delegates are staying in, venues that we’re having events at in Milwaukee,” the state GOP chairman told me on Friday’s edition of “The Federalist Radio Hour.”
“I’m not telling anyone to stay away, I’m not telling anyone to be afraid of coming to Milwaukee, but the truth of the matter is [leftists] are happy to do anything to disrupt not only the Republican convention, but to disrupt the possibility of Donald Trump becoming president,” Schimming said. “We saw it in the legal arena in New York recently; we will probably see it in the streets of Milwaukee.”
‘Failure to Act’
While party officials say they’ve had a good working relationship with the Democrat-controlled city and county of Milwaukee, the RNC and the U.S. Secret Service have butted heads. In a letter in late April to the federal agency charged with leading security efforts at the convention, the RNC raised concerns about what it says is a “critical flaw” in the potential protest zone. GOP officials say that Pere Marquette Park, just two blocks south of the Fiserv Forum, home of the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks and site of the convention, should be part of the security perimeter, not a staging ground for potentially violent demonstrators, according to the letter, first reported on by The New York Times.
“Your failure to act now to prevent these unnecessary and certain risks will imperil tens of thousands of Convention attendees, inexcusably forcing them into close proximity to the currently planned First Amendment Zone…” the letter warned.
Anthony Guglielmi, chief of communications for the Secret Service, blamed the RNC for “publicly disclosing security information,” telling the Times that the public airing of grievances “undermines our ability to maintain the integrity of our security plan and keep the convention, attendees, and the public safe.”
But city officials seem to have relented. According to multiple media reports on Wednesday, Milwaukee is looking at other sites for the protest zone. Fox6 reported that the change of heart came after business owners in the area complained, saying they were hearing from customers considering canceling their bookings at the venues.
Protesters don’t like the location, either, complaining it’s too far back from the action. The Coalition to March on the RNC, composed of dozens of leftist organizations, joined the American Civil Liberties Union in suing the city, asserting free speech violations. The coalition’s goal is to be within “sight and sound” of convention attendees.
The city next week is expected to unveil the precise location of the protest zone. According to the Fox6 article, more than 80 people or groups have signed up to speak or march during the convention. That list is expected to grow substantially.
Milwaukee was host to the Democratic National Convention in 2020, but, as Schimming noted, Democrats “Covid-ruled” themselves out of having a live convention, turning the event into a sad, virtual anointing of Joe Biden as party presidential nominee. The protest zone was to be located at Pere Marquette Park for the 2020 convention.
The Democrats are set to host their national convention in August in Chicago — just 90 miles south of Milwaukee. The Democratic National Committee and the crime-ridden leftist city are facing their own set of security challenges.
“I just say to local officials in Milwaukee, ‘Look, if you went through everything you went through to bid for this convention, have 50,000 to 60,000 people in town, and don’t put proper security into place and you have problems, you’ll never have a big convention here again,” Schimming said. “It’s not even a partisan thing.”
Unprecedented Convention
These, of course, are unprecedented times for political conventions, the parties, politics, and America. The GOP convention takes place just four days after a Manhattan judge is scheduled to sentence former President Trump — the presumptive Republican nominee for president — on political charges that many legal experts say are likely to be reversed on appeal.
Schimming said he recently spoke with RNC Chairman Michael Whatley, who assured the Wisconsin GOP chair that the convention will go on as scheduled.
“I know there’s been some rattle around, ‘Gee, maybe we should hold the convention earlier to try to get around the sentencing.’ I don’t get any sense that there’s a lot of thirst for that,” Schimming said, noting the prohibitive costs to change thousands of flights, hotel reservations, and other commitments.
