Why Milwaukee is seeking insurance against nuclear weapons for Republican National Convention

Alison Dirr, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
·3 min read

The insurance policies the City of Milwaukee is seeking ahead of the next year's Republican National Convention indicate preparation for worst-case scenarios: Terrorism, nuclear weapons and more.

The situations those words bring to mind sound dramatic but are not a reflection of any specific threat, said Andrea Fowler, an attorney at the city who handled much of the legal contracting work for the Democratic National Convention the city hosted in 2020 and is now among the key people tasked with planning for the RNC.

"It sounds scary, it does, but it's really just a reflection of what a city typically provides and purchases in these types of situations," Fowler said. "It's just designed to cover all types of risk, no matter how unlikely — completely unlikely — they are to occur."

Milwaukee will host the Republican presidential nominating convention July 15-18, when tens of thousands of visitors are expected to descend on the city.

The convention will also be staffed by as many as 4,500 police officers from outside Milwaukee ― 1,500 more than had been originally expected for the DNC before that event went largely virtual in the pandemic.

What types of insurance policies is Milwaukee seeking for the 2024 Republican National Convention?

A recently released request for proposals states the city is looking to purchase insurance policies for:

  • Special event law enforcement liability

  • Chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons

  • Terrorism

  • Deadly weapons

Fowler said the insurance the city is seeking for the RNC is exactly what it ended up purchasing for the DNC after receiving advice from its insurance broker about the types of policies typically provided to host cities.

"What you see in the 2024 (request for proposals) is really just a cut-and-paste job of what we ended up buying in 2020," she said.

2020 Democratic National Convention liability insurance cost $7.7 million

For the DNC, liability insurance cost about $7.7 million, according to a U.S. Department of Justice audit of Milwaukee's 2020 DNC grant award.

The city got the insurance "in response to the potential terrorism or criminal activity risks in hosting a National Security Special Event," the report states.

The city planned to spend $7.7 million on insurance even before the pandemic shrunk the event significantly, Fowler said.

Including insurance, the city spent about $16.7 million of a $25 million federal security grant allotted for the DNC.

The total federal security grant allotted to the city ended up being half the normal size for a host city because the convention was mostly virtual.

The same year, Charlotte, North Carolina, spent about $8.8 million for liability insurance for the Republican National Convention, according to a U.S. Department of Justice audit.

RNC insurance would be covered by federal security grant, is likely to cost more than 2020

It's not clear at this point how much liability insurance for the RNC will ultimately cost, but it's expected to be higher than in 2020 based on the increase in prices for everything, Fowler said.

She did not know whether the cost of insuring the RNC would be at all affected by the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol following former Republican President Donald Trump's election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

Eight months out from the convention, Trump is the Republican Party's frontrunner for the nomination even as he faces four criminal cases, including related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

The city's insurance contract is to be funded with a security grant from the U.S. Department of Justice, according to the request for proposals.

The general increase in prices makes it all the more important for the city to receive a larger security grant than host cities long have, Fowler said.

While the security grants provided to host cities have long maxed out at $50 million, there is a bipartisan push for the RNC in Milwaukee and the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next year each to receive a $75 million security grant instead. However, if or when Congress might approve that additional funding remains uncertain.

Lawrence Andrea of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this story.

Alison Dirr can be reached at adirr@jrn.com. Find her on X at @AlisonDirr.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Why Milwaukee is seeking insurance against nuclear weapons for 2024 RNC