Milwaukee loves its Miller Beer, Brewers baseball, and “ Bronze Fonz ” statue.
The deepest blue metropolis in swing state Wisconsin, Milwaukee additionally loves Democrats.
So it may be arduous for some to swallow that Milwaukee is taking part in host to Donald Trump and the Republican Nationwide Conference subsequent week whereas rival Chicago, the bigger metropolis simply 90 miles to the south, welcomes President Joe Biden and Democrats in August.
It didn’t assist clean issues over with cautious Democrats after Trump used the phrase “horrible” when speaking about Milwaukee only a month earlier than the conference that begins Monday.
Including to the angst, Milwaukee was speculated to host the Democratic Nationwide Conference in 2020, however it did not occur as a consequence of COVID. Homeowners of native eating places, bars, and venues say the variety of reservations that have been promised through the RNC aren’t materializing. And protesters complained town was making an attempt to maintain them too distant from the conference web site to have an effect.
“I wish I was out of town for it,” Jake Schneider, 29, mentioned as he handed by town’s statue of Fonzie, the character performed by Henry Winkler within the Seventies sitcom “Happy Days” that was set in Milwaukee. “I’m not super happy that it’s the Republican Party coming to town.”
Schneider, who lives in a condominium downtown, mentioned Trump “sabotaged himself” along with his feedback about Milwaukee.
“I hope he’s proven wrong and sees how wonderful of a city it is,” Schneider mentioned.
Ryan Clancy, a self-described democratic socialist who’s a state consultant and serves on the Milwaukee County Board, places it extra bluntly: “It’s shameful that we rolled out the purple carpet for the RNC.”
Nonetheless, Democratic and Republican conference boosters level to the potential financial boon and probability to point out off Milwaukee and Wisconsin through the conference that runs by means of Thursday.
“Folks are ready to have the convention and have it be successful and elevate Milwaukee to the next level,” mentioned 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.”
Milwaukee has been within the nationwide highlight extra in recent times, following the Bucks successful the nationwide NBA championship in 2021 and the airing this spring of the most recent season of “Top Chef,” a actuality TV present that was filmed within the metropolis and featured a Milwaukee chef who made the finals.
And as Trump’s “horrible” remark confirmed, Milwaukee has additionally lengthy been a goal for conservative Republicans who’ve pointed to it for instance of poor Democratic management.
“I hope this convention shows off all the best things about Milwaukee,” mentioned Wisconsin Republican Social gathering Chairman Brian Schimming. “But it is a city, like many other Democrat-run cities, that has extraordinarily significant issues.”
Democrats picked Milwaukee for the social gathering’s final conference, however the 2020 DNC turned an on-line occasion due to the pandemic.
Town’s back-to-back choice by Democrats and Republicans speaks to the swing state’s significance.
Wisconsin is one among a handful of battleground states more likely to decide this 12 months’s presidential race. It was one of many so-called “blue wall” states that Democrats as soon as relied on, however Trump narrowly gained in 2016, paving the way in which for his shock victory. Biden flipped the state again in 2020, and each campaigns are concentrating on it closely this 12 months.
However there’s nothing swing about Milwaukee. It voted 79% for Biden in 2020. After his loss that 12 months, Trump fought unsuccessfully to disqualify hundreds of voters in Milwaukee, falsely portraying late-arriving returns pushed by heavy absentee turnout as fraud.
Republicans say staging the conference in Milwaukee will energize their base. Whereas town itself is Democratic, the outlying suburbs are a battleground inside a battleground state. As soon as deeply purple, Democrats have made inroads since 2016 as suburban ladies, particularly, drift away from Trump and the conservative agenda.
Earlier than town was even chosen to host the conference, Clancy and different Democrats urged Milwaukee to drop out of the working, as Nashville did after Democrats there objected to internet hosting Republicans.
However by far the largest kerfuffle got here in June when Trump used the phrase “horrible” in speaking about Milwaukee throughout a closed-door assembly with Republicans in Congress. Whereas these in attendance disagreed over whether or not Trump was speaking about crime, election issues or one thing else, and he later mentioned in a Wisconsin rally that he “loved” Milwaukee, for some Democrats it solely reaffirmed earlier issues about taking part in host to Republicans.
Mobcraft, a Milwaukee-based brewery, confirmed off town’s Midwestern humorousness and love of beer by releasing a “(not so) Horrible City IPA.”
Because the conference nears, some native enterprise house owners are questioning estimates that the conference will herald $200 million in income.
Solely one of many six venues run by the Pabst Theater Group in Milwaukee is booked for the week of the conference, mentioned Gary Witt, the group’s president and CEO. Witt mentioned he’ll lose greater than $100,000 by not having venues used, and he is involved in regards to the influence the conference can have on different Milwaukee companies.
“Once these people are all gone, we’re meaningless to them anyway,” Witt mentioned of conference attendees.
Demonstrators try to unfold counterprogramming all through the week, however have argued they’re being saved too removed from the conference websites.
Omar Flores, chairman of the March on the RNC Coalition, mentioned he’s assured the protests will likely be peaceable and make the most of the nationwide platform they may have. He mentioned the coalition needed to battle to get a march route that will likely be in sight and sound of the conference, 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.”
Clancy, the Democratic state consultant, mentioned he hoped having the conference within the metropolis the place he was born and raised would inspire 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 mentioned.
