This wasn’t just any convention, any campaign, they said.
It was about “good versus evil,” as one attendee put it. An assault on their standard-bearer that they believed would backfire and make him politically stronger.
“The American people are as mad as hell, and they’re not going to take it anymore, and this just makes them a little extra mad as hell,” said Ken Abramowitz, 73, from Palm Beach, wearing a “1776” hat as he walked toward the party.
Thousands of Republicans are converging on Milwaukee this week for the convention that kicks off Monday amid raw emotions and a charged political atmosphere following Saturday’s shooting at a western Pennsylvania rally. In interviews, delegates and other participants repeatedly described a heightened sense of mission about the four-day gathering. They had seen the photos of Trump — face bloodied, pumping his fist and shouting “fight!” before the Secret Service rushed him offstage — and they wanted to show solidarity with him.
“The president needs to know that America is with him. We’re not going to back down. We’re going to fight just like he told us last night,” said Alexandra Schweitzer, the president of Republican Women of Waukesha County.
Next to a large printed headshot of the former president, fans signed a “Get Well Soon” poster with messages for Trump. Schweitzer handed out colorful markers for supporters to write their messages, and assured people that the large card would make it to Trump himself. Multiple messages on the poster read “Fight, fight, fight,” echoing Trump’s call in the seconds after he was injured.
Dozens of Republican elected officials, luminaries and party pooh-bahs will take the stage this week to deliver speeches in a cavernous arena. Activists will hold meetings on the sidelines. How the shocking scene at Saturday’s rally will factor into the convention’s scripted and looser moments was not yet clear. Yet many had already formed opinions of the shooting, and some arrived with outrage.
They were aghast at the security lapses that allowed a gunman to come so close on Saturday to killing the man they were about to nominate for president. Some worried that the convention might not be safe. The authorities said they were still investigating a motive, but many Trump supporters were angry at heated rhetoric against the former president that they blamed in part for the attack.
Authorities have identified the gunman as Thomas Matthew Crooks, a 20-year-old from Pennsylvania, and said there will be a lengthy inquiry into how he was able to fire into the rally from a rooftop despite many security measures. Condemning the attack Sunday from the Oval Office, President Biden said that “politics must never be a literal battlefield.”
Law enforcement officials said Sunday they are not increasing security for the convention. Alternate delegate Carrie Yanson shook her head firmly when asked if she was nervous to be here.
“The men who founded this country were willing to put up their lives,” she said.
If there was any doubt about November, it seemed to some conventiongoers them that now — more than ever — divine intervention was on their side.
“I want to thank God for protecting President Trump and sparing his life,” said Robin Armstrong, the Texas Republican national committeeman, as he kicked off a Sunday prayer vigil and said it was a miracle that Trump was alive.
Supporters had gathered in a park not from the convention venue, holding signs bearing well wishes with messages like “Pray 4 Trump” and “Jesus ♥ America + Trump.”
“We ask that this demonic attack will be a spark for a great awakening for this nation,” Armstrong said.
Terrence Wall, a convention delegate from Wisconsin, said that after the shooting, he talked with friends about their concerns over the lapse in security and whether the convention would be safe. Attending the prayer vigil with his 7-year-old English lab Lambeau — who wore a custom vest reading “No. 1 Republican Service Dog” — Wall said he believes the shooting at the Trump rally brought people together and that there is more unity in the party as a result.
He recounted conversations in the past day with friends who were on the fence between voting for Biden or Trump, or were considering not voting at all. They are now supporting Trump, he said.
Amy DeClue, a delegate from Missouri, said she was in Kohl’s when a fellow delegate messaged her breaking the news that Trump had been injured. She ran outside the store to get better cell service to learn more. She was relieved to see the video of him, fist in the air, alive: “That’s Trump, man. Only he can get shot and stand up and still pump his fist in the air. And he’s just — he’s legend at this point.”
“I think the energy is going to be 100 times more than what it was to begin with,” DeClue, who is also the chair of the Franklin County Republican central committee, said of the shooting’s effect on the convention.
“We now can add bulletproof to all of the adjectives that we use to describe our president,” said Jeff Giles, the 2016 Louisiana delegation chair. “It’s truly unfortunate in America that has to be the way people want to resolve their differences.”
Niraj Antani, a delegate and state lawmaker from Ohio, said intraparty squabbles felt insignificant as the party gathered. “I’ve never felt a more unified Republican Party than I do on this day,” he said.
As people streamed out of the Sunday night welcome party amid rain, loud cracks rang out. Some looked startled.
But it was just fireworks, and everyone went on with their day.
