Push for party unity resonates at Republican National Convention

MILWAUKEE (CN) — It was a warm, clear Tuesday morning in Milwaukee, but the dust was very much still settling from the first day of the Republican National Committee, which saw a confident GOP all but finalize its presidential ticket hours after the weeklong event began.

As the convention’s second day dawned, that sure-footed atmosphere persisted as convention attendees filtered through a full schedule of daytime events including a late morning mixer at the Harley-Davidson Museum, about a mile from the main venue.

Delegates and other convention-goers arriving at “BBQ, Bikes and Brews,” hosted by the Utah Republican Party, expressed the same confidence that exuded from the Fiserv Forum Monday night, where former President Donald Trump — who only days ago narrowly survived an attempted assassination — was given a hero’s welcome.

Michaela Hammerson, a conference attendee from Oregon visiting alongside members of the Beaver State’s convention delegation, said the attempt on Trump’s life served to further unify Republicans behind the presumptive nominee.

“People are obviously very emotional about what happened,” she told Courthouse News outside the Harley-Davidson Museum Tuesday morning. “But the energy is so good, and people are coming together and uniting over Trump.”

Unity isn’t something Republicans usually do well, Hammerson said with a chuckle. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we all have our own opinions about things,” she said. “But we are coming together over Trump and it’s amazing.”

In the days following the attempted assassination on Trump at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, Republican leaders have pushed hard to gather the party behind the former president. Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley reiterated that call while addressing the convention Monday night.

“We must unite as a party and we must unite as a nation,” he told the crowd, invoking the attempt on Trump’s life and saying that Republicans must “show the same resilience” as the presumptive nominee.

Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, who ran against Trump in a short-lived Republican primary, also accepted an invitation over the weekend to speak at this week’s convention. Some pundits saw it as a display of good faith following the attempt on the former president’s life.

But while the party appeared solidly behind Trump as its standard-bearer, there was healthy skepticism about the Republican platform and the former president’s move to select Ohio Senator JD Vance as his running mate.

Hammerson said she wasn’t familiar with Vance before he was added to the GOP ticket Monday afternoon. “I think there were some bigger names that he could probably have put on the ticket with him,” she said, naming her ideal choice as former Housing and Urban Development Secretary and onetime presidential candidate Ben Carson.

Carson was floated as a possible running mate for Trump, as were South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, Florida Senator Marco Rubio and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum.

Hammerson echoed some pundits’ take that picking Vance was a symbol of the Trump campaign’s confidence. “I think that it’s very clear that Trump is so loved in this country,” she said. “I think he’s going to win, and I think he had the freedom to choose whoever he wanted for his vice president.”

Derria Lakey, an alternate delegate representing Oregon, said in contrast that Vance was exactly who she wanted in the No. 2 Republican slot. “Vance is not a career politician," Lakey said. “He got into it because he saw the crap going on in Washington and was trying to make a difference.”

Growing up in a state that neighbors Vance’s, Lakey added, created common ground: “I’m from Indiana, he’s from Ohio, and we are very conservative. We love God, we love our family and we love America.”

Other conference-goers expressed concern that the Republican policy platform hadn’t shifted far enough to the right, though they stopped short of suggesting those issues could dissuade them from supporting Trump’s candidacy.

Denesa Rains, also an alternate delegate from Oregon, told Courthouse News she disagreed with the GOP’s support for NATO and Israel. “We need to take care of ourselves,” she said. “We need to be strong here … but I think we’re in a weak position right now, and there was a little too much about the industrial war complex [in the platform].”

The 20-point Republican policy platform declares that a second Trump administration would “prevent World War Three” and restore peace in Europe and the Middle East. It says the U.S. should also build a domestic missile defense system akin to Israel’s Iron Dome.

“I would have stressed more about education and our youth,” Rains said, “and how that important resource needs to be developed.”

Jennifer Gore, a delegate from Missouri, told Courthouse News in the convention hall Monday evening that she hoped to see Republicans take a stronger stance on abortion. “I’m a little disappointed,” she said, “that it seems like they’re going a little soft on the life issue.”

The Republican platform opposes late-term abortions and takes credit for the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling striking down the constitutional right to abortion, throwing the issue back to the states. But the GOP has not explicitly come out in favor of federal restrictions on the procedure and has expressed support for in-vitro fertilization.

Gore said that she hoped the attempt on Trump’s life last weekend would prompt “spiritual growth” from the former president. “It was totally by the grace of God that we’re here,” she opined. “We are just praying that we see that spill into President Trump and his spirit.”

The former president was nominated with overwhelming support Monday afternoon as the Republican candidate to challenge President Joe Biden in November’s presidential election. He is expected to formally accept his nomination on Thursday, the last day of the convention.

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