Associated Press
Milwaukee loves its Miller Beer, Brewers baseball and “ Bronze Fonz ” statue.
The deepest blue city in swing state Wisconsin, Milwaukee also loves Democrats.
So it can be hard for some to swallow that Milwaukee is playing host to former President Donald Trump and the Republican National Convention next week while rival Chicago, the larger city just 90 miles to the south, welcomes President Joe Biden and Democrats in August.
It didn’t help smooth things over with wary Democrats after Trump used the word “horrible” when talking about Milwaukee just a month before the convention that begins Monday.
Adding to the angst, Milwaukee was supposed to host the Democratic National Convention in 2020, but it didn’t happen due to COVID. Owners of local restaurants, bars and venues say the number of reservations that were promised during the RNC aren’t materializing. And protesters complained the city was trying to keep them too far away from the convention site to have an impact.
“I wish I was out of town for it,” Jake Schneider, 29, said as he passed by the city’s statue of Fonzie, the character played by Henry Winkler in the 1970s sitcom “Happy Days” that was set in Milwaukee. “I’m not super happy that it’s the Republican Party coming to town.”
Ryan Clancy, a self-described democratic socialist who is a state representative and serves on the Milwaukee County Board, puts it more bluntly: “It is shameful that we rolled out the red carpet for the RNC.”
Others take a more measured view.
“Folks are ready to have the convention and have it be successful and elevate Milwaukee to the next level,” said Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson, a Democrat. “Donald Trump, regardless of where it happens, is going to be the Republican nominee. So it didn’t matter if it happened in Milwaukee. It didn’t matter if it happened in Mar-a-Lago.”
Wisconsin is one of a handful of battleground states likely to determine this year’s presidential race. It was one of the so-called “blue wall” states that Democrats once relied on, but Trump narrowly won in 2016, paving the way for his surprise victory. Biden flipped the state back in 2020, and both campaigns are targeting it heavily this year.
But there’s nothing swing about Milwaukee. It voted 79% for Biden in 2020. After his loss that year, Trump fought unsuccessfully to disqualify thousands of voters in Milwaukee, falsely portraying late-arriving returns driven by heavy absentee turnout as fraud.
Republicans say staging the convention in Milwaukee will energize their base. While the city itself is Democratic, the outlying suburbs are a battleground within a battleground state. Once deeply red, Democrats have made inroads since 2016 as suburban women, in particular, drift away from Trump and the conservative agenda.
Clancy, the Democratic state representative, said he hoped having the convention in the city where he was born and raised would motivate liberals.
“I hope that having a critical mass of people in our city who hate us will be enough to mobilize folks for the primary in August and in November,” he said.
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Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
8 comments
Not Woke
July 13, 2024 at 9:06 am
Dems like to riot, start fires, loot stores, torch police cars. I expect them to show up to Milwaukee next week. Of course the phony media will claim this is all peaceful.
PeterH
July 13, 2024 at 10:10 am
LET ME FIX YOUR STATEMENT FOR INFORMED READERS:
Anarchist fueled by right wing proud boys like to riot, start fires, loot stores, torch police cars. I expect both groups to attend the Republican Clown Convention and when it comes to the November election …… anarchist DO NOT VOTE BECAUSE THEY DON’T BELIEVE IN VOTING.
Not Woke
July 13, 2024 at 10:29 am
Portland, Seattle, New York City, Chicago, Minneapolis, DC, Los Angeles, San Francisco, etc, etc. Blue run cities where riots, looting, fires, destruction of property have all taken place. These are all Demo cities and these are the Demo people. I’m sure the army of arsonists, looters, and such are on their way to Milwaukee.
Tjb
July 13, 2024 at 10:24 am
Still can’t believe what the Dems did to the Capitol n Jan 6th.
Not Woke
July 13, 2024 at 10:39 am
The phony insurrection promoted by the fake media. The same people that have been telling us for four years that Joe is sharper than ever. He is focused and works hard. Meanwhile the citizens have watched him stumble getting on and off AF-1. Crashing his bike. Mumbling, stumbling. shuffling around. Yes thos people in Jan 06 armed with cell phones, American flags and back backs were going to overthrow the US government. Uh huh. Zombies believe it all.
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Russell
July 13, 2024 at 9:42 am
Into the heart of the (Democrat) beast, he goes…
Michael K
July 13, 2024 at 12:12 pm
It’s a party of lies led by a twice-impeached convicted felon, who is liable for sexual assault, multiple scams including a bogus charitable foundation (who does that?), a fake university, multiple bankruptcies, and launched his political “career” with a racist birther lie.
The Republican party died in 2016. It’s nothing more than a cult based on cruelty that has done absolutely nothing for the American people — while the billionaires laugh all the way to the bank.
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