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Tag: convention

  • Trump plays the inside game to stave off ’16-like convention chaos

    Trump plays the inside game to stave off ’16-like convention chaos

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    Cruz ended up performing better than expected in the state’s delegate fight. And after the imbroglio, Trump brought in veteran Republican strategist Paul Manafort as part of an effort to bring a level of professionalism to his delegate operation. In the years since, he has told advisers: “I won the primary but lost the delegates.” And when he sat down with the Louisiana Republican Party leaders, the story of that delegate fight with Cruz was among the topics discussed, according to a person familiar with the conversation.

    Now engaged in another delegate battle, Trump has been aggressively courting party leaders — in Louisiana and elsewhere — who are expected to be delegates at the party’s 2024 convention in Milwaukee. He’s been dining with them at Mar-a-Lago, chatting them up at party events and offering them endorsements. The effort will intensify in the weeks to come, with Trump expected to make appearances at state party events that will be filled with future national delegates.

    The courtship illustrates Trump’s transformation as a presidential candidate — from the political newcomer of 2016 who oversaw a chaotic operation, to the experienced campaigner now playing the inside game.

    “They’re very organized very early. They’ve been in touch with us a number of times,” said Rhett Davis, a consultant to the Louisiana GOP. “President Trump is in a much better position in Louisiana than he was in 2016. He’s extremely strong here.”

    “No other presidential campaign or potential campaign has reached out to us,” Davis added.

    Presidential primaries and caucuses don’t elect candidates, they elect delegates. Whichever candidate wins a simple majority of those delegates at the national convention next year will become the nominee.

    While those delegates are bound to specific candidates at the beginning of the convention process, they can become unbound in the event of a contested convention or if their candidate releases them. That, in turn, makes them targets of wooing. State party leaders and others who are active in Republican politics typically become delegates — and Trump has lavished attention on them since leaving the White House.

    During Trump-hosted rallies ahead of the 2022 midterm election, local Republican Party chairs were frequently given speaking time, and last year the former president spoke remotely to a meeting of the South Carolina GOP executive committee. He also has placed full-page ads in Iowa Republican Party publications. And when Trump launched his 2024 bid, his first campaign stop was at a meeting of the New Hampshire Republican Party.

    Trump is also using the trappings of his gilded Mar-a-Lago estate to woo would-be delegates. In early March, the former president hosted roughly a dozen Nevada Republican Party leaders for a three-hour dinner. Over steaks and ice cream, Trump talked about the political landscape in the state, which traditionally hosts an early nominating contest.

    When Trump isn’t with future delegates in-person, he is finding other ways to reach them. When the Missouri Republican Party met in February, Trump called the state party chair, Nick Myers, who put the former president on speakerphone so he could address the audience.

    In Michigan, he has worked to ensure he is on smooth footing with Kristina Karamo, the state’s newly elected party chair. Trump had earlier endorsed a rival candidate in the February contest for Michigan Republican Party chair, but he personally congratulated Karamo when he saw her at the Conservative Political Action Conference in early March, according to a person familiar with the exchange.

    Trump has used his much-coveted endorsement as a tool to win over would-be delegates. Early this year, the former president provided his support to Caleb Heimlich during his successful race for reelection as Washington State GOP chair. And, last month, the former president dove into a more local race — endorsing Bruce Parks in his ultimately successful bid for the chairmanship of Nevada’s Washoe County GOP.

    Guiding Trump’s strategy is a team of advisers who are veterans of delegate fights. The group includes Brian Jack, Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita — all of whom played key roles in the 2016 national convention. Also on the team is Clayton Henson, who served in the Trump White House and on the former president’s 2020 reelection campaign. Much of Trump’s team was present at the Republican National Committee gathering in Dana Point, Calif. earlier this year, where they met with party officials from a number of states.

    Trump advisers believe their early outreach will give them a head start over rival candidates, who lack Trump’s long-standing connections to party officials.

    “The Trump campaign … has spent the last eight years fine tuning its unmatched operation,” said Steven Cheung, a Trump campaign spokesperson. “For any other campaign to think they can come even close to what President Trump has built is laughable and delusional.”

    What Trump’s campaign is trying to avoid is a rerun of the 2016 national convention, when Cruz waged a last-ditch effort to stop Trump from winning the nomination. While it ended up being unsuccessful, it was embarrassing to Trump.

    Many of Cruz’s top alum are now serving on a super PAC bolstering Trump’s chief primary rival, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. The group includes former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, who in 2016 helped spearhead the anti-Trump push at the convention and at one point threw his credentials on the floor in protest.

    Erin Perrine, a spokesperson for the pro-DeSantis group, Never Back Down, declined to comment directly on the group’s plans to engage in delegate outreach, but accused Trump of taking part in “Washington insider games” that “show he’s become the swamp he once vowed to drain.”

    Still, there is little question, many state party leaders say, that Trump has a massive organizational head start over other candidates when it comes to wooing future delegates.

    Mike Brown, the chair of the Kansas Republican Party, said he has had extensive conversations with Trump advisers about the state’s political landscape.

    “They have done quite a bit in the way of staying in touch,” Brown said of the Trump campaign. “When it comes to the other campaigns, candidly, I haven’t heard from anybody.”



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    ( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

  • Looking back at the 1968 Democratic National Convention

    Looking back at the 1968 Democratic National Convention

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    Protesters gathered at a nearby hotel where many of the delegates were staying. Police officers could not keep the peace and Daley sent in troops from the Illinois National Guard, which had been activated by Gov. Samuel Shapiro.

    Day 3

    The anticipated televised Vietnam debate aired, and thousands of antiwar protesters gathered in Grant Park, where they had a permit to assemble.

    The National Guard prevented the protesters from reaching the amphitheater. Later in the afternoon, a teen climbed a flagpole and lowered the American flag, and the police arrested him.

    One of the protest organizers, Rennie Davis, told the police that the group had a legal protest permit and requested that the officers leave the park. The officers then beat Davis unconscious.

    Another protest organizer, Tom Hayden, encouraged protesters to return to the hotel. However, early in the evening, outside the hotel, police officers began attacking antiwar protesters with billy clubs and tear gas.

    Meanwhile, Sen. Abraham Ribicoff, in his nominating speech for McGovern, referred to “Gestapo tactics in the streets of Chicago” as televisions inside the convention hall showed the riots happening outside.

    Later at the convention, delegates voted for Humphrey to receive the presidential nomination.

    Day 4

    The police used tear gas to stop the remaining protesters and antiwar delegates from reaching the amphitheater.

    Officers arrested over 650 protesters during the convention.

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    ( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

  • Chicago will host 2024 Democratic convention

    Chicago will host 2024 Democratic convention

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    Chicago stood out, party leaders said, because of its diversity and strength in the labor movement. Although Democratic Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson ran to the left of Biden on policing, he was backed by the powerful Chicago Teachers Union.

    Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth, who is a co-chair of the DNC, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and outgoing Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot made a concerted lobbying campaign with the White House for the city. Pritzker and Duckworth organized an effort among Midwestern governors and senators and others to also lean on Biden.

    “The Midwest is key to a victory in 2024, and there is no city better positioned to reach those voters than Chicago,” Duckworth said in the statement.

    Many party leaders point to recent Democratic victories in Michigan and Wisconsin as proof of the Midwest’s strength for Democrats.

    Last week, Wisconsin voters elected a liberal majority to its state Supreme Court, which will likely affect an upcoming court case challenging a ban on abortion.

    Chicago and Atlanta have been the frontrunners among the three finalists for weeks. A convention in Atlanta would have highlighted the importance of Georgia, where Democrats have seen recent success in Senate and presidential elections.

    But Chicago, a city split nearly evenly between Black, Latino and white residents, is also a union town, where Georgia is a right-to-work state.

    After last week’s mayoral runoff in Chicago, Pritzker said he “absolutely” saw Johnson’s victory as enhancing the city’s chance of securing the convention. “Look, he brings a real excitement to the job, I think to the people of Chicago. And I think that’s being felt in Washington, D.C.”

    The 2024 Democratic convention will be the city’s 12th time hosting the event. The first was in 1864 and the most recent was 1996. The most memorable, however, was the 1968 convention, which was marked by unrest.

    The ’68 convention was held on the heels of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., who had lived in Chicago with his family for a time to highlight the disparities of the city.

    Chicago is a city well-versed in hosting big conventions.

    It has 132 hotels and 43,462 hotel rooms in the business district and hundreds more hotels in the greater metropolitan area. It has a solid transportation system. And Pritzker has also pledged to make sure the DNC can walk away debt-free from a convention held in Chicago.

    Pritzker, who self-funded his two gubernatorial campaigns, has enlisted numerous Illinois business executives to help fund the convention, which is expected to cost between $80 million to $100 million.

    The major convention events will be held in the United Center, where the Chicago Bulls play. It’s the largest arena in North America, with 1.7 million square feet of arena and convention venue space, according to organizers. There’s also more than 26,000 square feet of hospitality space, which has been a draw for conventions in the past.

    Other events would be held at McCormick Place, which has hosted nearly every American president since President John F. Kennedy at various events. McCormick Place also hosted more than 60 world leaders and heads of state as part of the 2012 NATO Summit.

    As an example of how important the Midwest is for 2024, Republicans are set to gather in Milwaukee, Wis., an hour away from Chicago, from July 15-18, 2024.

    The 2020 Democratic Convention held some events in Milwaukee but was largely virtual because of the pandemic.

    Additional reporting from Christopher Cadelago and Sally Goldenberg.

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    ( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

  • Pritzker, allies to DNC: We’ll cover the bill — if Chicago gets the ’24 convention

    Pritzker, allies to DNC: We’ll cover the bill — if Chicago gets the ’24 convention

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    But what’s gone largely unsaid — at least officially — is the governor’s own riches.

    JB Pritzker, a billionaire with presidential potential, is a noted philanthropist and a prolific Democratic donor who cut checks last year for incumbent governors like Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer and the Democratic parties in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

    Pritzker’s team is hoping to lure the party to Chicago with what’s essentially a financially risk-free 2024 convention. Federal funds don’t generally cover conventions, though security for the U.S. Secret Service is funded through a federal grant for as much as $50 million to pay for, among other things, additional police presence. So having a billionaire governor as a stopgap could be alluring.

    “The governor has spoken directly to Joe Biden and committed that Chicago has the ability to fund the convention,” Natalie Edelstein, a spokesperson for the Chicago bid, told POLITICO.

    Conventions are costly affairs. When the 2012 Democratic convention wrapped, Democrats still owed money on everything from operational expenses to construction work and modifications made to the Time Warner Cable Arena. To deal with the $8 million bill, the city of Charlotte secured a $10 million line of credit from Duke Energy, an electric utility in the region. But Democrats didn’t repay Duke, which claimed the money as a business expense, drawing criticism for leaving shareholders to foot the bill.

    Those organizing Chicago’s bid expect the price tag to run between $80 million and $100 million.

    A priority for Chicago and Atlanta is fundraising, which relies on four pillars: organized labor, national corporations, political donors and local businesses and leaders.

    “If one of those entities is not participating, it becomes almost impossible to fundraise,” said a Democratic strategist who’s consulted on conventions.

    President Joe Biden has already sought to nudge his party south, pushing South Carolina up the Democratic presidential nominating calendar, and awarding the convention to Atlanta would bring more attention to Georgia, which swung his way in 2020. Labor leaders in New York have also tried to spike Atlanta over its dearth of unionized hotels and the idea that such a pro-union president would take the convention to a right-to-work state.

    Still, some Midwestern Democratic elected officials have recommended Chicago to the DNC, according to letters written by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and others.

    A potential strike among food workers at Chicago’s United Center, which would be the centerpiece location of the convention, caused some recent concern about the viability of the bid. But the tensions appear to be close to a resolution. UNITE HERE Local 1 and Levy Restaurants have reached a tentative agreement, and union members are expected to ratify it in the coming days.

    The effort to bring the Democratic convention to Chicago is also reminiscent of the city’s business community stepping up in 2009 for an ill-fated bid for the 2016 Olympic Games.

    But another undercurrent around Chicago’s push for 2024 attention is the persistent concern about the city’s crime, which upended the mayor’s race this winter. Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who was seen as a strong voice to represent the city in a convention, was bumped from the runoff, leaving two candidates at the extreme ends of the Democratic Party about public safety and policing.

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    ( With inputs from : www.politico.com )

  • HISA Invites Applications for Global Youth Convention 2023

    HISA Invites Applications for Global Youth Convention 2023

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    SRINAGAR: Headway Institute of Strategic Alliance (HISA), Morocco is inviting an application for the four-day Global Youth Convention (GYC) 2023 to discuss the “Importance of Education”, “Equitable Development”, “Financial Inclusion for youth-led community projects”, and “Sustainable Development Goals”.

    Any Student, Professional, Volunteer, Social and Health worker from all backgrounds who are over 18 years of age and be able to communicate in the English language is eligible to apply.

    Candidates are required to submit basic details and valid identity proof.

    Selected candidates will be provided with round airfare, Certifications, Four- star accommodation, an all-access pass to the GYC 2023, chance to explore Morocco’s culture, and a networking dinner with Governors, State Ministers, Legislators, UN Officials, researchers, students, professionals working in NGOs.

    The last date to apply is March 30, 2023.

    Eligible candidates need to apply through the official website of HISA.

    For further information and to apply, click here

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    ( With inputs from : kashmirlife.net )

  • Amit Shah to attend BJP farmers’ convention in Patna next month

    Amit Shah to attend BJP farmers’ convention in Patna next month

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    Patna: Union Home Minister Amit Shah is scheduled to visit Patna to attend a farmers’ conclave organised by the Bihar BJP on February 22, the birth anniversary of Swami Sahajanand Saraswati who was an ascetic and a peasant leader, party leaders said here.

    They also described Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as “anti-farmer”, referring to the violence on January 11 in Buxar where a peasants’ protest over compensation demand for acquired land for a thermal power project turned violent.

    At a joint press conference, state BJP president Sanjay Jaiswal and Rajya Sabha MP Vivek Thakur said that Shah will attend the party’s farmers’ convention on February 22.

    To a query, Jaiswal denied that Swami Sahajanand Saraswati’s birth anniversary was being celebrated as a strategy to consolidate the party’s upper caste support base.

    “Swami Sahajanand Saraswati’s contributions have been acknowledged by historians around the world. Please do not view him through a narrow prism,” said Jaiswal.

    The Swami, who was born in Uttar Pradesh in 1889, had set up an ashram at Bihta in Bihar where he got involved in peasant activism.

    His social and political activities focused initially on Bihar, and gradually spread to the rest of India with the formation of the All India Kisan Sabha. He was an iconic figure for the influential Bhumihar community, largely seen as BJP supporters whom the RJD has of late been trying to win over.

    “It is because of the lacklustre attitude of the state government, Saraswati is a less-known personality in Bihar. The state government must hand over the defunct Bihta Bazar Samiti and its land to the central government so that it can be developed into an advanced farmers’ facilitation centre to be named after Sahajanand Saraswati,” said Thakur.

    On the Buxar incident, he claimed that beating up protesting farmers by security forces exposed the “inhuman, anti-farmer and anti-poor” face of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

    “Farmers were protesting for compensation for their land acquired for establishing a thermal power plant at Chausa. Several farmers suffered severe injuries following police lathi charge,” Thakur said.

    When the CM recently visited Buxar during his Samadhan Yatra, he did not bother to meet the affected farmers, the BJP leader said.

    Amid speculations that senior JD (U) leader and former Union minister Upendra Kushwaha may join the BJP, Jaiswal said, “All those leaders inclined towards the politics of development and nationalism are welcome to join our party. Besides, all those who fought against the jungle-raj in Bihar are welcome”.

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    ( With inputs from www.siasat.com )