RNC official Reince Priebus credits Dems with building case for Milwaukee hosting 2024 convention

WASHINGTON – The chairman of the Republican National Convention's Milwaukee host committee is attributing Democratic efforts to bring their own presidential nominating convention to the city three years ago as a major reason national Republicans chose Milwaukee for 2024.

"Without the work that... the (Democratic National Convention) folks in Wisconsin did to bring the convention to Milwaukee in 2020, I'm not sure whether 2024 would have happened," said Reince Priebus, former chairman of both the Republican National Committee and the Republican Party of Wisconsin.

"It helped pave the road for 2024," he added of the 2020 Democratic convention, which turned virtual due to the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. "Even though the DNC convention didn't happen... that work to get the Democratic National Convention to Milwaukee is all part of the same story to get us here and beyond in Milwaukee."

Priebus' comments came during a WisPolitics.com luncheon Tuesday less than a mile from the U.S. Capitol that focused on the upcoming convention and the critical role Wisconsin will play in the 2024 presidential election.

Both Priebus and former Milwaukee Bucks executive Alex Lasry, who chaired the 2020 DNC host committee and ran unsuccessfully for Senate last year, underscored during the discussion the importance of the upcoming Republican convention to Milwaukee. The event, scheduled for July 15-18, 2024, is expected to bring 50,000 people to the city and pump millions of dollars into the local economy.

"It's about promoting Milwaukee. It's about promoting Wisconsin, promoting small businesses," Priebus said. "Making sure that when you have delegations that come into the state of Wisconsin, that that wealth of what should be around $200 million in an economic impact is spread out among those businesses."

Lasry said: "The fact that we were able to land the DNC and then the RNC, I think, should show the world that Milwaukee is a place you want to come to if you're looking for a big convention... This is a way for us to grow the city, to bring not just the partisan delegates, but you've got companies coming in, so maybe companies that are maybe looking to invest in the city..."

Priebus told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that the host committee is "surpassing" all of its fundraising goals and deadlines but declined to provide the specific dollar amount the committee has raised to date. The committee is tasked with raising about $68 million to fund the event — a figure that would cover production costs and venue rentals, as well as a transportation system to ferry delegates from hotels to arenas.

And while Priebus and Lasry spoke largely of promoting Milwaukee and the benefits the Republican National Convention is expected to bring to Wisconsin, it is hard to ignore the political implications of such an event.

A perennial swing state, Wisconsin could once again prove to be the tipping point that pushes a presidential contender over the threshold and into the White House. Former President Donald Trump, the current Republican frontrunner, won Wisconsin in 2016 by nearly 21,000 votes. President Joe Biden defeated Trump in the state in 2020 by a similar margin.

There's no reason, the two men suggested, to think 2024 will be any different.

Lasry on Tuesday praised the Biden administration's recent visits to Wisconsin and said showing up in the state builds trust with voters.

Priebus, meanwhile, said Democrats are "stuck" with Biden, whom he called the "wrong person" for the job, claiming he is "in far worse shape today than in 2020."

"You can say what you want about Donald Trump — love him, hate him," Priebus said of the former president who is now facing four criminal indictments. "He's the same today as he was when he came down the escalator in 2015."

He listed efforts to target groups of voters and increase voter turnout in elections, including absentee voting, which had long been rejected by Republicans like Trump, as keys to winning in Wisconsin.

"Republicans have to stop whining and complaining about early vote and absentee ballot voting and just start doing it and get better at it," Priebus said. "It's here to stay... Republicans have to adapt."

"You can launch whatever initiatives you want, but if you don't spend the time, money and energy in educating your voters — I'm talking about Republican voters now — about why they should vote early, why it's important to get the likely Republican voters out of the way so you can focus on the 'sometimes voters' on election day,That's why you need to do it," he added. "So it's going to take the entire Republican ecosystem to change its ways and change their opinions about early voting absentee ballot voting."

And outside of the nonpartisan benefits Milwaukee will reap from hosting the 2024 Republican convention, the GOP, too, hopes its convention will push them toward success in the swing state.

"Having a convention in a host city absolutely makes a difference in whether or not you can win that state," Priebus said.

He later added: "If you're perceived positively in Milwaukee and Wisconsin... it can make a huge difference. And so that's why this convention, what the RNC is doing and Wisconsin's role in 2024 all work hand-in-hand."

"It all comes down to Wisconsin."

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Priebus credits Dems for making case for Milwaukee hosting 2024 RNC