Community Groups Call On Leaders To Oppose Milwaukee Bid For 2024 RNC

MILWAUKEE, WI —Five area community organizations penned a letter to Milwaukee and Wisconsin political leaders on Tuesday calling on them to oppose the city's bid to host the 2024 Republican Convention (RNC).

In March, Politico reported that Milwaukee and Nashville, Tennessee, were the two finalists for the GOP convention.

But in Tuesday's letter, the groups —Voces de la Frontera Action, Power to the Polls, Milwaukee Area Labor Council, Never Again is Now and SEIU — said the Republican Party, in Wisconsin and nationally, has become "an organization that supports White Supremacists, the violent attempted coup at the U.S. Capitol to overthrow a democratic election, and continues to engineer new ways to undermine fair and democratic elections."

"(The groups) want to send a clear message to city, county and state leaders: the Republican National Convention is not welcome in Milwaukee," the letter states.

The letter comes a day before Milwaukee's Common Council committee is due to vote on the RNC draft agreement negotiated with the city, the Republican National Committee and the local host committee, according to the Journal Sentinel.

The agreement includes elements like security provisions, parking availability and street closures for the RNC. The Journal Sentinel reported that the draft agreement also calls for the host committee to work with local vendors and workers, and it includes provisions to employ diverse and historically underrepresented businesses.

Milwaukee's Democratic Mayor Cavalier Johnson on Tuesday reiterated his support for the convention coming to town because it would be good for the city financially.

"I think that the RNC presents a tremendous opportunity for us in Milwaukee," Johnson told the Journal Sentinel. "I think it presents a great opportunity for Milwaukee to be in the national conversation, to be a city that other large conventions and other large events look to. I want the RNC to be the bedrock for a new and stronger convention and tourism economy that we can build here in the city of Milwaukee."

Milwaukee was the site of the 2020 Democratic National Convention. However, the event became a mostly-virtual affair due to the pandemic.

But the city has said that many of the plans put in place for that event can be used for a Republican convention.

The RNC is expected to draw 50,000 people to Milwaukee. Fiserv Forum would serve as the main convention site, while the Wisconsin Center, UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena and the Miller High Life Theatre also would be used.

But in their letter, the group of community organizations called on "all Wisconsinites" to send a strong message to Johnson and the Common Council representatives to oppose hosting the RNC in Milwaukee.

"The recent hate crime in Buffalo, is one of many escalated acts of violent hate inspired by (Republicans') 'great replacement' rhetoric, fear-mongering and harmful policies, and is yet another reminder of why we must not normalize the far right that has captured the Republican Party," the groups wrote in its letter.

The letter continued: "We take seriously the challenge to view issues through the twin lenses of 'equity and race'; welcoming the current version of the Republican Party to Milwaukee does not meet that challenge. It undermines it.

"We work collaboratively on issues relative to the rights of workers on the job and the right to democratically organize at workplaces in the Milwaukee area, and we note that the RNC and many elected members of the party have serious shortcomings in their attitudes toward workers rights and unions."