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The Republican National Committee on Friday will officially name Milwaukee as the host city for the 2024 Republican National Convention.
The vote by all 168 RNC committee members will take place as the national party committee conducts the final session of its annual summer meeting, which is being held this year in Chicago.
“We’re very excited about Milwaukee,” RNC Chair Rona McDaniel emphasized in an interview with Fox News Digital on the eve of the vote.
Milwaukee and Nashville, Tenn., were the last two cities on the big list originally in the running to host the 2024 Republican National Convention. But the Tennessee capital fell out of contention Tuesday night as the Nashville Metro Council voted against a project convention hosting agreement.
NASHVILLE VOTE AGAINST 2024 CONVENTION, LEAVING MILWAUKEE AS LAST CITY
Officials in Milwaukee present a mock 2024 Republican presidential nominating convention The Republican National Committee on Friday, August 5, 2022, will officially designate Milwaukee as the 2024 host city. (RNC/Host Committee of Milwaukee 2024)
Milwaukee approved its draft resolution in June, and two weeks ago the Republican National Committee (RNC) Site Selection Committee — which oversees planning for the 2024 convention — recommended Milwaukee over Nashville.
The two national parties often hold their presidential nominating conventions in competitive general election states. While Tennessee is a reliably red state in presidential races, Wisconsin is a key battleground state.
“It’s a purple state,” McDaniel said of Wisconsin. “That’s exactly the kind of voters we’re trying to attract to our party, and they’ve done such a great job. We’re excited not only to elect our next president from Milwaukee as a Republican, but we’re excited to showcase a great city and a great state.”
DEMOCRATS DELAY DECISION ON CHANGING THEIR PROPOSED 2024 CALENDAR
The full RNC voted unanimously in April to make no changes to its 2024 presidential nominating calendar, keeping Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada as the four early voting states.
The rival Democratic National Committee is in the process of flipping its nominating calendar, with Iowa — and possibly New Hampshire — likely to lose their cherished front seats. Republicans in both states used the DNC’s move as ammunition against Democrats running for re-election this November in hotly contested showdowns.
The Iowa Caucuses Exhibit at the Iowa State History Museum on January 15, 2020 (Fox News)
Asked whether the DNC’s move could hurt Democrats in Iowa and New Hampshire, a key general election battleground state, McDaniel told Fox News: “We recognize there is a history there that the voters are very opinionated. Retail is key to winning the nomination in both states…we are very proud to have kept our calendar the same. I hope the people in those states recognize that the Democrats just left their states.”
While the 2024 election is on the agenda at the RNC meeting, at the forefront of many minds is the midterm elections in November.
Democrats face historic headwinds as the party that wins the White House and controls Congress traditionally suffers major setbacks in the House and Senate in the next midterm elections. They also face a very adverse political climate, fueled by record inflation and rising crime and symbolized by President Biden’s deeply negative approval ratings.
McDaniel said RNC committee members are “very confident, very excited, even more so when we look at the candidates that we have … as we come out of these primaries and really come together to prepare to win in November.” .
DEMOCRATS SPEND MILLIONS THIS WEEK TO NOMINATE GOPP ON ABORTION
However, citing problems with gun violence, following a number of high-profile mass shootings in recent months, and abortion following the move by the conservative majority on the Supreme Court to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, which sent the issue of abortion regulation back to the states. Democrats see an energized electorate that will help them defy current political forecast expectations.
Signs for and against the Kansas constitutional amendment on abortion are displayed off Kansas Highway 10 on August 1, 2022 in Lenexa, Kansas. (Kyle Rivas/Getty Images)
Democrats were further energized by Tuesday’s resounding victory in Kansas by pro-choice activists — in the first test of legalized abortion since the Supreme Court’s blockbuster ruling.
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When Democrats asked him about the full court press to raise the abortion issue in the midterms, McDaniel argued that “Democrats have a problem with inflation, with gas prices, with the lack of baby formula, with the open border, with the drug crisis. I know they want to make this a big issue, but Americans every day when they go to the grocery store, when they go to the gas station, they realize what Democrat policies are doing to their pocketbook, and pocketbook issues will be number one in November.”
Paul Steinhauser is a political reporter based in New Hampshire.
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