MILWAUKEE — Illinois delegates praised former President Donald Trump’s choice of Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance as his running mate and Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritkzer scaled back plans to provide counterprogramming to the GOP message on Monday as the Republican National Convention got underway.
“I think he’s an exciting young talent in our party, and I couldn’t be happier to have J.D. Vance as our vice-presidential nominee,” Travis Akin, a convention delegate from downstate Illinois, said from the floor of Fiserv Forum following the announcement of Vance’s selection. “He understands the Beltway, so he brings a lot of that knowledge with him. But he hasn’t been there for so long that he’s jaded. I think he will bring a lot of energy.”
Pritzker’s planned trip to Milwaukee was cancelled following the weekend assassination attempt on Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, leading to calls from Republicans and Democrats to tone down political rhetoric in the midst of an overheated election season.
The director of Secret Service issued a statement Monday morning saying she is “confident” in the security plan for the Republican convention, “which we have reviewed and strengthened.” The agency said it has implemented changes to Trump’s security detail since the attempt on his life “to ensure his continued protection for the convention and the remainder of the campaign.”
Trump’s selection of Vance as his potential vice president came as delegates in Milwaukee gathered at Fiserv Forum on the first day of the four day convention to formally nominate the former president as the party’s candidate in November.
During the roll call of states for Trump’s nomination, U.S. Rep. Mary Miller, chair of the Illinois delegation, cast Illinois’ 64 delegate votes for the former president, citing frequent themes she has touted as a member of the far-right House Freedom Caucus including opposition to transgender medical procedures and trans athletes’ participation in sports.
Miller said she was casting the delegation’s votes “on behalf of parents who are horrified by Joe Biden’s attack on parental rights, on behalf of farmers who are being crushed by the Biden economy, on behalf of our daughters who Biden is forcing to compete against men in sports, and, on behalf of the victims of the Kamala Harris border crisis.”
Standing behind Miller was her husband, state Rep. Chris Miller, a member of the far-right Freedom Caucus in the Illinois House.
Mary Miller cast the votes long after Trump had amassed the necessary 1,215 votes for the nomination, a procedure orchestrated so that Florida would put the former president over the top in an announcement made by his son, Donald Trump Jr.
Illinois’ votes were cast after even some territories, including Puerto Rico, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, delivered their votes, a reflection of the poor expectations national Republicans have for a state where Democrats have ironclad control and where Trump lost by 17 percentage points in both 2016 and 2020.
By the time Illinois was called in the roll call of the states, Trump had already secured 1,730 delegates.
Illinois’ Republican delegation started its week Monday morning with the first of a series of breakfasts at a hotel outside of Milwaukee, where speakers went over their reasons for believing Trump is better suited to run the country than Biden.
U.S. Rep. Mike Bost, the morning’s featured speaker , aid the former president is “the right candidate at the right time” and alluded to the turmoil among Democrats after Biden’s disastrous debate showing last month, which led some of his political allies to urge him to step aside for another candidate.
“It is great to know that we as a party are united, and let me tell you that I want you to think about what is going to happen in a couple of weeks in Chicago. I know who our candidate’s going to be. How about you?” the five-term congressman said. “They (the Democrats) don’t have a clue. They don’t know whether their existing candidate is going to get there.”
Bost also noted that his challenger in in the March GOP primary, former state Sen. Darren Bailey, was in the crowd. Bost, one of three Republicans in Illinois’ 17-member congressional delegation, defeated Bailey in a close race.
“We went through a primary season. Right? And it was tough. Right? But let me tell you something. Both I and that man right back there, Darren Bailey, we’re going to stand shoulder to shoulder in support,” Bost said to applause from the crowd and a thumbs-up from Bailey.
“This is our party,” Bost said. “We have the ideas and the principles and the anchor to make sure that we make this great nation great again and even greater than it ever has been under the leadership of Donald Trump. And we do that by standing side by side with each other.”
Miller told the breakfast audience that Republicans “are going to bring our great ideas and policies to conquer the Democrats’ policies that are terrible for Americans.”
“Americans want secure borders. We want a robust economy. We want parental rights and excellent schools. We support our police. We are 100 percent behind our great leader, Donald J. Trump,” she said.
Demetra DeMonte, the Republican national commiteewoman for Illinois, led the delegates in a prayer, saying Trump “was sent (an) angel to gently touch his face to move it so ever slightly to avoid the fatal shot from the assassin’s bullet.”
State Rep. John Cabello, a delegate and a Republican from Machesney Park, a Rockford suburb, rallied the crowd with a chant of Trump’s name.
“If you’re happy with higher taxes. If you’re happy with the inflation rate going out of control. If you’re happy with all of the crap that’s being shoved down our (throats) in the state of Illinois, don’t” support the Republican ticket, said Cabello, who co-chaired the Illinois Republican delegation at the RNC in Cleveland in 2016 when Trump was first nominated to be president. “But if you are tired of it, we need you. We need your help, every single one of us must help each other.”
After the event, Bost praised a federal judge’s decision to toss a case against Trump over for his use of classified documents following his single term in office, although the congressman used the occasion to proclaim the former president’s innocence even though the judge’s ruling was based on her finding that the appointment of a special counsel violated the Constitution.
“I believe that Donald Trump was president when he removed documents, which he has the power to decide whether those are classified or unclassified,” Bost said. “The powers of the president should not be infringed upon.”
