MILWAUKEE — There was President Trump’s former rival turned supporter. There was the union leader making his Republican convention debut. There was the hardline MAGA congressman and there was the model and reality TV star Talk about to become a Trump convert.
This year’s Republican convention featured speakers of all stripes: some appealed to Trump’s base, others to moderate Republican voters, some to union members, and still others to juvenile voters and minority voters.
It’s a sign of how Trump has transformed the party by moving away from customary conservative orthodoxy. It’s also a signal that Republicans hope to expand their reach by November.
“The reality of America is we’re not going to agree on everything,” Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) said Tuesday. “And if you can disagree with your spouse or your parents, what the hell makes you think you’re always going to agree 100 percent with the politician? You’re not.”
“You know, to me that’s always a false narrative,” he continued. “The reality is, we’re a big tent, we have differences of opinion. We’re not all going to agree on everything that’s said or done or proposed, but we have an opportunity here to address the challenges facing the American people.”
While the theme of the week was a united Republican Party in support of Trump, there were also signs that Trump’s party hopes to win over less customary GOP voters.
The keynote speakers on Monday to close the evening were two unusual ones. One was Amber Rose, who is best known as a model, has appeared in hip-hop videos and started a feminist demonstration in Los Angeles called “SlutWalk”. The other was Teamsters President Sean O’Brien, who the first leader of the workers’ group to speak at a Republican convention and denounce corporate greed.
The most prominent speakers on Tuesday were two of Trump’s fiercest rivals earlier this year: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, who endorsed Trump as recently as Tuesday night when she took the stage. Both stressed the importance of getting Trump back in the White House, with Haley making a particular point. calls on Republicans who may not always agree with Trump to support him in November.
And Lara Trump, the former president’s daughter-in-law and co-chair of the Republican National Committee, ended the evening by attempting to portray a softer side of the Republican candidate as she described Saturday’s assassination attempt on Trump.
Lara Trump argued that the Trump coalition included “veterans, teachers, blue-collar workers, white-collar workers, active military personnel, police officers, firefighters, small business owners, Latinos, Christians, Jews, blacks, whites, Asians, gays, Republicans, independents, and yes, even Democrats.”
“You may not have liked everything he tweeted, but you can’t deny that you were better off when he was in office,” she said.
The Trump campaign team was firmly convinced you can move in more black and Hispanic voters in November than previous Republican presidential campaigns. Trump met with O’Brien earlier this year and beat He is trying to bring down the leadership of the United Auto Workers (UAW), which represents an essential voting bloc for Biden’s campaign, and thus aims to lure away rank-and-file union members.
There are some Republicans who are still not welcome in Trump’s GOP. Former President George W. Bush, former presidential candidate Mitt Romney, former vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan, former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Trump’s own former vice president Mike Pence were nowhere to be seen at this week’s convention.
And some of the speakers on Wednesday were among the party’s most hardcore Trump supporters, including Representatives Matt Gaetz (R-Florida), Ronny Jackson (R-Texas) and former White House trade adviser Peter Navarro.
Some conservatives, particularly those in the anti-abortion movement, have expressed frustration that Trump’s takeover of the party meant giving up Long-standing principles on trade, abortion and foreign policy have been overturned in favor of political expediency.
“We don’t appreciate enough how much of a connection there has been over the years between populists and conservatives who support the Republican Party, and last night was really [a] “Rejection of conservatism,” Marc Short, a top adviser to Pence, posted on the social platform X on Tuesday. “The platform turns away from life and traditional marriage and is fully committed to protectionism.”
The Biden team insisted it still sees a chance to win over Republican voters who remain skeptical about voting for Trump in November – even as Haley, DeSantis and others have joined him.
“Ambassador Haley said it best herself: Someone who does not respect our military, cannot distinguish right from wrong, and ‘surrounds himself in chaos’ cannot be president,” Austin Weatherford, director of Republican engagement activities for the Biden campaign, said in a statement.
“That’s why millions of Republicans cast their votes to protest Donald Trump and his attacks on our institutions, our country’s allies and civility,” Weatherford said. “For every single one of those voters, there is a home in the coalition of patriotic Americans that President Biden is building, who will always care more about country than party.”
Mychael Schnell contributed.
