How a Largely Democratic Milwaukee Is Feeling About Welcoming Thousands of Republicans

MILWAUKEE — Milwaukee is days away from a rare turn in the international spotlight, with the Republican Party coming to town to nominate Donald Trump for the presidency.

Some voters in the city, which is heavily Democratic, described the convention as an exciting and long-awaited chance to showcase Milwaukee to the rest of the country. Others called the gathering a terrible idea that would disrupt daily life and, they suspected, do little to help the local economy.

But in interviews with more than two dozen residents of the Milwaukee area, the most common sentiments seemed to be some mix of qualified enthusiasm and stoic acceptance. Perhaps this was not the convention they would have chosen, but this was the convention Milwaukee got, and the city might as well make the best of it.

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“I think there’s a lot of negativity about it; that’s what I’m hearing from friends,” Luke Johnson, 23, a Democrat and an engineer, said last weekend after finishing a jog downtown with his girlfriend. Still, he added, “I can’t help but be a little excited for it because you don’t get this kind of opportunity often.”

Living in the largest city in Wisconsin, one of the country’s most important swing states, Milwaukeeans are no strangers to the political stage. Digital billboards along the interstate cycle between messages criticizing President Joe Biden and others denigrating Trump. Both candidates and their surrogates are regular visitors to the region. Journalists and pollsters have long examined the subtlest shifts in the local electorate — are suburbanites moving toward Democrats or Black voters toward Republicans?

But the Republican National Convention, expected to bring thousands of party loyalists, elected officials and reporters to the city, presents a spotlight of another scale. Downtown, fencing and concrete barriers were being positioned this week near Fiserv Forum, home to the NBA’s Bucks and the convention’s main stage. Some bars and restaurants, hopeful for an increase in business, were planning to add extra staff members.

Davey Noble, 45, owner of a custom framing shop in Milwaukee’s Riverwest neighborhood, said the convention was “like a double-edged sword.” It was great, he said, that the city was being viewed as a place to hold major events, but he added that “people get heated when it’s politics.”

“I think doing big conventions like this is ultimately positive regardless of who I support politically,” said Noble, a Democrat, who had no plans to watch the festivities a couple of miles away from his store. “I’m going to stay the hell away from downtown. I won’t be anywhere near that.”

Five years and one pandemic ago, the Democratic Party chose Milwaukee, population 561,000, to host its 2020 nominating convention. But with COVID-19 raging, that convention became an almost entirely virtual affair, leaving the city with much of the upfront expense but little of the payoff that organizers had hoped for. So when the opportunity arose to host the Republicans in 2024, Milwaukee’s Democratic leaders agreed, even as they held varying degrees of enthusiasm.

“The general sentiment was, ‘This is something we have to do — it will put Milwaukee on the map, and there will be thousands of journalists here and international exposure,’” said Alderperson Robert Bauman, who, despite reservations, voted in favor of plans to bring the convention to Milwaukee. “There will be those benefits unless of course there’s massive problems. Then the story will be the opposite.”

Alison Prange, chief operating officer of the convention’s host committee, credited local officials for supporting the event and said the host committee had been meeting with residents to answer questions and address concerns. More than 4,000 people, she said, have volunteered to help with the convention.

“People love our city, and people love our state,” Prange said. “And I think a lot of people can put aside the politics because they see the upside of hosting this convention; they see the opportunity that this presents.”

In interviews, a few people said they worried about protests getting out of hand or even outbreaks of civil unrest during the convention.

“I don’t have a lot of faith that security will be so good,” said Bill Hall, 76, a Trump voter who lives in suburban Waukesha County. He said that he worried about the potential for unrest but that he thought the gathering would still be a positive for the city.

State Sen. LaTonya Johnson, a Democrat whose district includes the convention arena, said she hoped businesses that made investments before the convention that wasn’t in 2020 would see a payoff next week. But she also expressed concern that the event could draw people who would not be respectful of Milwaukee, a city where about 39% of residents are Black, 33% white and 20% Hispanic.

“It makes me nervous to think that there are individuals that could potentially come here, and their only cause for showing up is to spread racist rhetoric,” said Johnson, who said she was referring to potential spectators or demonstrators, not official convention participants.

Some Milwaukee residents said they planned to work remotely, rather than commute to downtown offices amid heightened security and increased traffic. Some said they had not heard much about the convention and did not expect it to affect their lives much, if at all.

“It will boost the economy, but how many investors will invest in the Black neighborhoods?” said Steven Cunningham, 45, a Democrat who is Black. “Having the convention here really doesn’t matter to me, to be honest.”

Shannon Hawley, 35, said she, too, questioned whether convention-goers would venture beyond the convention’s footprint into the city, adding that she was “not a fan” of the gathering.

“I don’t think anyone is super excited about it,” said Hawley, a social worker and a Democrat, “but I don’t think anyone is super excited about politics in general right now.”

Milwaukee, a manufacturing center on Lake Michigan, is a proud city that has worked in recent years to spruce up its downtown, keep its major league sports teams and stop a slow but steady decline in population. Darryll Fortune, 62, said that the convention was an opportunity for Milwaukee and that he hoped guests would venture beyond downtown to places like Bronzeville, a historically Black neighborhood where he was having dinner a few nights ago.

“Anytime a convention comes to town it’s good for the city, not only from an economic standpoint but also to showcase the city,” said Fortune, a Democrat who works in public relations and lives in Waukesha County.

While the politics of Milwaukee can be foreboding to Republicans — Biden carried Milwaukee County by 40 percentage points in 2020 — even some critics of the party said they welcomed the event.

Outside a bar in Riverwest, a chalkboard sign made a crude reference to Trump, adding, “WE DON’T NEED A KING.” But if convention participants were looking for a drink, bartender Sarah Brittman said, she would be happy to pour them one.

“Everybody is welcome,” said Brittman, 40, a Democrat. “This is the melting pot bar. We get everybody.”

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