Ohio Republicans Looking Forward To RNC, From Afar

The Republican National Convention started Monday, and President Donald Trump has already received his party’s formal nomination. He is also slated to speak every night during the convention. 

Summit County Republican Party Chairman and Trump delegate Bryan Williams told ideastream he’s looking forward to hearing what the president has to say, and doesn’t mind that he won’t have to wait until the convention’s final night to take the stage. 

“Will that make Thursday night anti-climactic? No, I don’t think so,” Williams said. “I think it’s going to be the capstone to the speech because I think his participation early on will be more at a human level than a policy level, and I still think we need to watch what the second-term agenda is going to focus on.” 

Williams is “bummed” he can’t attend this year’s convention in South Carolina in person, but he plans to watch Thursday night’s acceptance speech from a drive-in watch party organized by the Summit County Republicans for a little convention camaraderie.

Four years ago, he liked the president’s message of waging a “war on political correctness” and Williams hopes to hear a message of resolve from the president this time around to continue in his policies. 

Laverne Jones Gore is running for Congress against incumbent Marcia Fudge, and she’s also a convention delegate for Trump. As an African-American, Gore said she believes Trump is working to combat racism and hopes the Black Lives Matter movement will be addressed during the convention. 

“I’m looking for the president to talk about how he plans on implementing practices and policies that will eliminate some of the nonsense that we are experiencing right now,” she told ideastream. “I do believe that racism is an issue for our country and I believe that Donald Trump is one of the few elected officials that has combatted it. He’s actually said we’ve got this problem and we need to actually address it.” 

Gore would like to hear the clear message that – in America – everybody is welcome at the table. Trump has been accused of racism by some throughout his presidency, though he’s asserted that he is the “least racist person.”

Lorain County Republican Party David Arredondo also will be joining some local conventional watch parties. He said that although most delegates won’t be able to attend the convention in person, he doesn’t expect that to diminish his party’s enthusiasm for Trump’s re-election campaign. 

“There is an increase of voters coming down who are clamoring for Trump signs or bumper stickers,” he said. “The phone is going off the hook, and this is no exaggeration, I mean it’s really like that.” 

This week, he’s hoping to hear how the president plans to uphold American values and the rule of law, Arrendondon said, and hopes the president will address plans to unite the country. 

“It’s very difficult to do so in this day and age,” he said. “I think that’s something that you can strive for but the understanding is that it’s probably not going to happen, but we have to make an attempt to do so.”