The 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee is 1 year away. It's like staging '4 Super Bowls in a row'
It's a year to go before one of the biggest political shows on earth touches down for four days and nights in Milwaukee.
The Republican National Convention will be held July 15-18, 2024.
The event will bring 50,000 people to Milwaukee as Republicans gather to nominate their national ticket to take on the Democrats.
Former White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, who is chairman of the host committee, says the event is so large it's like staging "four Super Bowls in a row."
It's still in the distance, a year to go. And in some ways it's a little surreal, Milwaukee getting this second chance at a big political show so quickly after the dashed dreams of 2020 when the Democratic Convention was turned virtual because of the pandemic.
All the big plans were scrapped but not forgotten as Milwaukee mounted its bid for the Republican convention and claimed the prize last August.
Preparations have long been underway to fund, organize and stage the event. The initial round of requests for proposals has already gone out, as organizers begin to fill key services for general contracting, credentialing and transportation management.
Ask Priebus what the scene will look like in Milwaukee over those four days next July and he tries to make it personal.
Of course, there will be plenty of politics, including the potential for some real fractious moments as Republicans scramble for the nomination.
To Priebus, though, the convention is about relationships.
"It's long enough that delegates and people and leaders from all over the world end up becoming part of the Milwaukee family," he said. "And there is truly an opportunity for the city of Milwaukee and the state of Wisconsin to take that real kinship and allow it to grow into future opportunities and growth for the area and the state.
"It's unique. It's extremely special. And I think it's very personal."
The convention is also expensive. The host committee is charged with raising about $68 million to fund the event, which doesn't just pay for production costs and venue rentals, but also a transportation system to ferry delegates from hotels to arenas.
A grant from the federal government is designed to pay for the blanket of security that will envelop the main convention area from Fiserv Forum to the Baird Center. The convention facility, formerly called the Wisconsin Center, is undergoing a $456 million expansion project that is due to be completed next spring and will double its space.
"The fundraising is going very well," Priebus said, declining to give an overall dollar amount already secured. "I'm not nervous about fundraising but it is something that has to continue and it never stops."
Gov. Tony Evers cut $9 million in public financing for the convention
The host committee suffered a setback recently when Democratic Gov. Tony Evers sliced $9 million from a $10 million taxpayer outlay that was supposed to go to VISIT Milwaukee to pay for convention expenses.
Under Evers' partial veto, $1 million will go to the convention while the other $9 million was directed for general marketing purposes for the Department of Tourism.
Republican legislators did not provide any funding for the 2020 DNC in Milwaukee.
"Certainly it's disappointing," Priebus said. "But I think there might be opportunities to make the case through the tourism budget perhaps. But recovering from that means we have to continue working hard and raising money from folks who are generous around the state of Wisconsin and around the country."
The host committee is just one part of the operation.
Planning on the political side is undertaken by the Republican National Committee's Committee on Arrangements. That group is led by Anne Hathaway, a longtime Republican stalwart from Indiana.
"The closer we get, the more real it becomes," Hathaway said.
Aug. 23 Republican presidential debate gives Milwaukee a dry run for the RNC
A key event occurs next month, Aug. 23, when the first Republican presidential primary debate is staged at Fiserv Forum. It will serve as something of a dry run for the convention.
"The debate and the convention are bookends," Hathaway said.
Peggy Williams-Smith, president and CEO of VISIT Milwaukee said the debate will give organizers "this opportunity to figure out what we're doing right and what we need to change."
The debate will also take place as the Republican National Committee is in the city for its summer meeting. The RNC members won't just be able to tour the convention venues, they'll also have an opportunity to meet local vendors as part of a "Convention Partner Fair."
Up to 300 vendors will be able to present their services and products to prospective clients.
Megan Maze, manager of Ultimate Confections candy store in Wauwatosa, hopes to make connections through the firm's line of chocolates. The payoff could come with a boost in business next year, she said.
"We're putting our best foot forward with this," she said. "We want to represent Wisconsin."
Mayor Cavalier Johnson say the city's top focus will be public safety
Mayor Cavalier Johnson said a year out, the city is in a "strong position" to host the massive convention.
He envisioned in the days before the convention that public safety plans would be ready to be put into action, businesses across the city and their workers would have access to RNC-related opportunities, and scores of people would have flooded into Milwaukee's hotels, restaurants and nightlife.
And, he said he hoped "that we would have a safe convention that will set Milwaukee up to be the host for other large-scale sports, entertainment, political events in the future."
He said while such a large-scale event could come with inconveniences downtown, those are outweighed by the benefits to the city and state.
It was last fall that staff in his office began working on RNC-related preparations, he said. A group co-led by Johnson's Chief of Staff Nick DeSiato meets weekly, with a top focus on public safety, Johnson said.
He highlighted the bipartisan push for the RNC in Milwaukee and the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next year each to receive a $75 million security grant instead of the $50 million that has long been provided to host cities. Milwaukee expects to learn whether it received the higher sum after September.
The city is also working with the Secret Service on public safety preparations, he said. The federal agency is setting up more than 20 committees focused on "every aspect of public safety," including access to waterways, the perimeter in the area of the convention and biohazards, Johnson said.
"It's just every sort of angle that you could come at public safety on a large-scale event like this and making sure that we are airtight, that we are watertight and that we will have a convention that is safe for everyone," Johnson said.
Between the 2020 Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee and the preparations for the 2024 convention was the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by those trying to overturn the results of then-President Donald Trump's 2020 election loss to Joe Biden.
If Trump is the Republican nominee, Johnson urged members of the public who oppose him to protest peacefully and safely.
And he said the concern about outside agitators causing clashes is the same for the RNC in Milwaukee as it would be at any massive convention across the nation.
"If you decide to come here and cause problems, you will be dealt with," he said. "There will be arrests, there will be prosecutions."
Johnson also noted that the convention takes place in the years since nationwide social unrest over the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police in 2020. He said law enforcement agencies have been working to ensure officers treat people of color and people living in poverty constitutionally and with dignity, and he expressed confidence in Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman's ability to lead outside agencies with that ethos during the RNC.
Johnson framed next month's Republican debate in Milwaukee as a "teaser" for the convention.
"It'll be a great opportunity, I think, for us to start to have a teaser ... where Milwaukee will be in the headlines of every telecast, every publication across the country," he said.
Ald. Robert Bauman, who represents much of downtown, envisioned a "pretty chaotic" situation in the area around the convention for the month or so before the event. That includes road closures, fencing, and challenges accessing businesses and residential properties.
And how the actual convention will play out is a "wild card" if Trump is the Republican nominee, he said.
"If it’s a coronation of Donald Trump, I think there could be a lot of issues in the city in terms of protests … It’s hard to predict, but depending on how their primary season goes, it could be extremely volatile," he said.
But, he added, with thousands of police presumably the crowds will be under control.
As for whether the city is ready for the influx of people, Bauman said he didn’t think the city had any idea what it would be like.
"Are we ready?" he said. "Probably not, but I’m sure we’ll be as ready as we can be."
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: 2024 RNC in Milwaukee: 1 year to go before the big political show
