MILWAUKEE — ANALYSIS — It’s not easy showing up to a four-day party to nominate and support Donald Trump, knowing that you can’t cast your delegates for Trump. But that was the challenge of the Washington, D.C., Republican Party this week in Wisconsin.
Republicans kicked off the convention early Monday afternoon by formally nominating Trump for president a third consecutive time. For two hours, state after state stepped up to the microphone, heaped praise on the former president, and dedicated their delegates loudly for Trump, followed by loud applause around the arena. But that wasn’t going to work for D.C., considering former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley won the district’s presidential primary with 63 percent.
For their disloyalty, District delegates were relegated to last in the long roll call vote, but still had to try and match the moment without being able to explicitly support Trump.
“On behalf of the District of Columbia, I am directed by that District to cast its 19 votes for president in accordance with the rules!” declared D.C. Chairman Patrick Mara from the back corner of the convention floor with bright lights shining on his face. But it was a dissonant chord to end the celebratory song, and some rank-and-file delegates were confused.
“That’s pretty lame for the District of Columbia,” said one nearby delegate from Washington state. “He didn’t even mention Trump’s name!” jeered another.
Thanks to the primary result, Mara and the delegation were in a tricky situation. Unlike Vermont, which also voted for Haley in the primary, the district party’s own rules prohibit the delegates from being transferred to Trump, even though Haley publicly “released them” a week ago.
Yet while the delegates were still pledged to Haley, Mara and advisers declined to mention Haley’s name, to avoid inciting the crowd. They had an accurate read of the room, but knew proper protocols had to be followed in the formal nominating process.
“We’re the District of Columbia. We’re always the red-headed stepchild of the GOP, and also the red-headed stepchild of D.C. government,” said Mara in an interview off the convention floor after the roll call vote. “It’s a role we’re used to.”
Trump received 4 percent and 5 percent of the district vote in the 2016 and 2020 general elections. Registered Republicans make up 5 percent of the electorate in the district. The 2024 Republican presidential primary consisted of 1,955 people voting in the first three days of March at a single location (the Madison Hotel near Thomas Circle). There might have been more people lined up for a hamburger at the lone concession stand with food in the Fiserv Forum during a break this past Monday evening than people who voted in the D.C. primary.
Mara was well aware of where the district stood in Trump’s mind before they even arrived in the Badger State, based on the logistics. The delegation is in one of the finest hotels in East Madison, Wis., joked Mara, but the Cambria is more than 90 minutes west from the Fiserv Forum, the hub of the convention programming. By contrast, the Florida delegation is three blocks away from the arena at the Hyatt Regency and sitting directly in front of the stage.
It’s clear that the calls for unity after the attempted assassination of Trump on Saturday only go so far, considering Mara and other GOP officials were aware that even mentioning Haley’s name could cause an uproar among the party faithful.
The timing of the district’s roll call vote dance was even more interesting considering it was a couple of hours before Sen. JD Vance of Ohio was formally nominated to be the vice presidential nominee — when Haley was arguably a better choice.
Haley, 52, is one of the most accomplished women in the Republican Party today. She was a two-term governor and ambassador to the United Nations who also happens to be a woman of color. She is slated to speak on Tuesday night, but the fact that she’s not a featured star of the convention is an example of Trump putting his personal grievances ahead of the party.
After she failed to drop out after two states in the GOP primary in January, Trump demonized Haley to the point where she might need extra security at the convention to protect her from other Republicans.
But even though the D.C. GOP has been relegated to the outskirts of the convention, they can take heart in the fact that the nation’s capital gets disproportionately more attention from Trump than the states.
After declining to adopt a new platform in 2020, the Trump-inspired 2024 edition includes a key plank that speaks to one of the top concerns among D.C. residents: crime. Point 11 of the platform reads, “REBUILD OUR CITIES, INCLUDING WASHINGTON DC, MAKING THEM SAFE, CLEAN, AND BEAUTIFUL AGAIN.”
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