Milwaukee sat in the center of the political universe this week as host of the 2024 Republican National Convention. The festivities brought to town national conservative leaders, swarms of reporters and fewer protesters than expected as Republican delegates officially nominated former President Donald Trump for a second term.
The four-day convention began Monday in a deeply Democratic city where residents had mixed feelings about hosting the Republicans and Trump, who unsuccessfully tried to invalidate thousands of their legally cast votes in the last election.
It unfolded during a fraught time in American history: just days after Trump survived an apparent assassination attempt Saturday at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The shooting killed one spectator and critically injured two others. The shocking incident prompted discussion of unity, although some Republicans in Milwaukee made clear those calls don’t necessarily include Democrats and their presumptive nominee President Joe Biden.
“Their policies are a clear and present danger to America, to our institutions, our values and our people,” said Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson as he welcomed the delegates to Wisconsin, which Trump narrowly won in 2016 before losing to Biden in 2020.
Trump officially became the Republican presidential nominee on Monday afternoon. He swept the votes from delegates at Fiserv Forum and announced that Ohio Sen. JD Vance would be his running mate. Trump drew raucous cheers from delegates Monday as he appeared with a bandage over the ear injured in Saturday’s shooting.
A day later, the police killing of a Milwaukee man wielding knives outside of the convention security perimeter fueled anger and questions from residents.
Here are more of the sights from the convention and events swirling around it.
Protest precedes nomination
The Republicans’ official business Monday came after a coalition of groups marched against the party and in support of the rights of women and immigrants and in opposition to the war in Gaza. A handful of counter-protesters heckled protesters at the march, which was within sight of Fiserv Forum.
Milwaukee police confirmed that an estimated 700-800 peaceful protesters gathered around Red Arrow Park. The Coalition to March on the RNC, which organized the march, claimed Tuesday that 3,000 people protested. That was still fewer than the 5,000 attendees organizers predicted.
Several marchers told Wisconsin Watch they will support neither Biden nor Trump in the election. The coalition in August also plans to protest at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Asked whether not voting for Biden amounts to a vote for Trump, Kobi Guillory, a coalition spokesperson from Chicago, said:
“We’ve met people whose entire families have been wiped out in the genocide that our tax dollars have been inflicting on Palestine.”
Police officer kills Milwaukee man outside of security perimeter
On Tuesday afternoon, five police officers from Columbus, Ohio, shot and killed a homeless man wielding two knives about a mile from the convention’s security perimeter.
Columbus Police confirmed the shooting took place in a Tuesday statement and released body cam footage showing the man lunging at another man with a knife as officers ordered him to drop it. The man was later identified as Samuel Sharpe Jr., who lived in a nearby tent encampment.
Some Milwaukee residents who converged on the shooting site expressed outrage about the killing by out-of-state police officers there for the convention.
An emotional vigil for Sharpe was hosted Tuesday night in Milwaukee’s King Park, happening concurrently with the convention’s primetime programming.
“The first and last time I spoke with Sam, he was just a peaceful, calm spirit just going through the struggles of life and trying to get over them,” said Shawana Baker as she sat on the steps of Repairers of the Breach, Milwaukee’s only daytime shelter and resource center for the homeless. Baker said she would see Sharpe at the shelter every day.
“I just feel like Sam was supposed to be here.”
Joe Timmerman, Julius Shieh, Ava Menkes, Jack Kelly and Hallie Claflin contributed to this report, which also included information from The Associated Press.
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