MILWAUKEE– Milwaukee loves its Miller beer, Brewers Baseball It is ” Bronze Fonz “statue.
The deepest blue city in swing state WisconsinMilwaukee also loves Democrats.
So it might be hard for some to swallow this Milwaukee will host to former President Donald Trump and the Republican National Convention next week, while rivaling Chicago, the largest city just 90 miles to the south, welcomes President Joe Biden and Democrats in August.
Didn’t help calm things down with Democrats wary after Trump used the word “horrible” when speaking about Milwaukee just a month before the convention that begins Monday.
To add to the angst, Milwaukee was supposed to host the Democratic National Convention in 2020, but that didn’t happen due to COVID. Owners of local restaurants, bars and venues say the number of reservations promised during the RNC is not materializing. And protesters complained that the city was trying to keep them too far from the convention site to make an impact.
“I wish I was out of town for this,” said Jake Schneider, 29, as he passed the statue of Fonzie, the character played by Henry Winkler in the 1970s comedy “Happy Days,” set in Milwaukee. “I’m not very happy about the Republican Party coming to town.”
Schneider, who lives in a downtown apartment, said Trump “sabotaged himself” with his comments about Milwaukee.
“I hope he’s proven wrong and sees what a wonderful city it is,” Schneider said.
Ryan Clancy, a self-described democratic socialist who is a state representative and serves on the Milwaukee County Council, says it more bluntly: “It’s shameful that we rolled out the red carpet for the RNC.”
Still, supporters of the Democratic and Republican conventions point to the potential economic benefit and the chance to showcase Milwaukee and Wisconsin during the convention that runs through Thursday.
“People are ready for the convention to be successful and take Milwaukee to the next level,” said Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson, a Democrat. “Donald Trump, regardless of where it happens, will be the Republican nominee. So it didn’t matter if it happened in Milwaukee. It wouldn’t matter if it happened at Mar-a-Lago.”
Milwaukee has been in the national spotlight more in recent years, following the Bucks winning the national NBA Championship in 2021 and the airing this spring of the final season of “Top Chef,” a reality show that was filmed in the city and featured a Milwaukee chef who made it to the finals.
And as Trump’s “horrible” comment showed, Milwaukee has also long been a target of conservative Republicans who have pointed to its crime, low-ranking schools It is financial struggles as an example of weak democratic leadership.
“I hope this convention showcases all the best things about Milwaukee,” said Wisconsin Republican Party Chairman Brian Schimming. “But it’s a city, like many other Democrat-run cities, that has extraordinarily significant problems.”
Democrats chose Milwaukee for the party’s last convention, but the 2020 DNC became a online event because of the pandemic.
The city’s consecutive selection by Democrats and Republicans speaks to the The importance of the swing state.
Wisconsin is one of a handful of swing states will likely determine this year’s presidential race. It was one of the so-called “blue wall” states that Democrats relied on but Trump narrowly won in 2016, paving the way for his surprise victory. Biden flipped the state in 2020, and both campaigns are targeting it heavily this year.
But there’s no swing in Milwaukee. He voted 79% for Biden in 2020. After his defeat that year, Trump unsuccessfully fought to disqualify thousands of voters in Milwaukee, falsely portraying the delayed results, driven by large absentee turnout, as fraud.
Republicans say holding the convention in Milwaukee will energize their base. Although the city itself is democratic, the outlying suburbs are a battleground within a swing state. Once deeply red, Democrats have made inroads since 2016 as suburban women, in particular, turned away from Trump and the conservative agenda.
Even before the city was chosen to host the convention, Clancy and other Democrats urged Milwaukee to drop out of the race, as Nashville did after Democrats objected to hosting Republicans.
But by far the biggest confusion came in June, when Trump used the word “horrible” when talking about Milwaukee during a closed-door meeting with congressional Republicans. Although those present disagreed about whether Trump was talking about crime, election concerns or anything else, he later said at a rally in Wisconsin that he “loved” Milwaukee, for some Democrats this only reaffirmed earlier concerns about playing host to Republicans.
Mobcraft, a Milwaukee-based brewery, showcased the city’s sense of humor and love of Midwestern beer by releasing a “(not so) Horrible City IPA.”
As the convention approaches, some local business owners are questioning estimates that the convention will generate $200 million in revenue.
Only one of the six venues managed by the Pabst Theater Group in Milwaukee is booked for the week of the convention, said Gary Witt, the group’s president and CEO. Witt said he will lose more than $100,000 by not using the venues and is concerned about the impact the convention will have on other Milwaukee businesses.
“Once all these people are gone, we won’t have any meaning for them anyway,” Witt said of the convention attendees.
Protesters are trying spread counterprogramming all week, but argued they are being kept too far from convention sites.
Omar Flores, president of the RNC Coalition March, said he is confident the protests will be peaceful and take advantage of the national platform they will have. He said the coalition had to fight to get a marching route that will be in sight and sound at the convention, after Milwaukee’s Democratic leaders “completely sold us out, completely sold out the city and refused to listen to what any of the residents had to say. to say.”
Clancy, the Democratic state representative, said he hoped the convention in the city where he was born and raised would motivate liberals.
“I hope that having a critical mass of people who hate us in our city will be enough to mobilize people for the primaries in August and November,” he said.
