How Trump pulled the party in his favor at the Republican convention

How Trump pulled the party in his favor at the Republican convention
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This week’s Republican convention highlighted and bolded former President Donald Trump‘s plan to retake the White House, from the adoption of a party platform that de-emphasized long-standing core conservative social issues to the choice of anti-intervention populist Sen. JD Vance as his running mate.

There was little to no coverage of the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, abortion rights, or gun rights. Up and down the speaker schedule were disgruntled Black and Latino Democrats, enraged over immigration and crime, a union president, and an OnlyFans model.

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This was no mishap. Working-class union members and young, comparatively nonideological Black and Latino voters are among the historically Democratic-leaning groups that the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee, which are now completely under his control, are attempting to win over.

With speakers that were somewhat shocking to conventional GOP constituencies, the convention was the party’s most direct appeal to them to date. This suggests that the Trump team thinks it will have a greater chance of drawing those voters than of gaining back the Trump to President Joe Biden crossover supporters who defected to him in 2020. Of particular note are the educated and suburban white voters who voted in large numbers for Nikki Haley during the 2024 GOP primary.

Ohio Republican delegate Mike Gonidakis, who also serves as president of Ohio Right to Life, told NBC News that “this is not your father’s GOP anymore.” “This is the new Trump GOP.”

Speaking with NBC News, the majority of Republican lawmakers and delegates praised what they perceived as an attempt to expand the party’s base of support rather than giving up on certain conservative policy objectives.

Gonidakis responded, “Of course, it would be wonderful to hear you discuss life every single night.” “But you have to win in order to govern, and we have to win in order to govern, correct? Therefore, we must increase our appeal to a wider audience because doing so is the long-term plan and the means of genuinely pulling in a larger tent. transforming people’s thoughts and emotions.

Both Vance and Trump made these pleas in their speeches to the convention attendees.

“You know who the millions of immigrants hurting our country the most are?” stated Trump. “The Hispanic and African American populations.”

The previous evening, Vance took a different tack and attacked corporate America and the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The Ohio senator declared, “We need a leader who answers to the working man—union and nonunion alike—and is not in the pocket of big business.” “A leader who would defend American businesses and industries instead of caving into foreign conglomerates. A leader who strives to revive our great American industry and opposes the “Green New Scam” promoted by Kamala Harris and Joe Biden.

Trump is attempting to take advantage of the weakness in Biden’s coalition, as evidenced by a recent NBC News survey. In the last poll, Trump’s lead against Biden among voters was 2 points overall. According to the survey’s internal statistics, Biden led by just 4 points among respondents under 30. (An exit poll conducted by NBC News in 2020 indicates that he carried voters under 30 by 24 points.) Biden had a 57-point advantage over Black voters (having won them by 75 points in 2020). Biden leads by 16 points among Latino voters (having won them by 33 points in 2020).

Democrats resisted Trump’s efforts, particularly his outreach to people who identify as Black and Latino. The outreach was criticized by Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison as “Trump’s streak of lip service and photo ops,” and she said that there were “defamatory stereotypes, such as saying that because he is a convict, voters of color should support him” at the conference.

Democrats further contended that voters, especially those of color, would see through Trump’s efforts because of his agenda while he was president, which was harmful to these voters.

Biden-Harris campaign spokesman Sarafina Chitka stated, “Colorful voters are astute and astute; they will not be sidetracked by Trump’s freebies of fast food or off-brand sneakers, nor will they forget his history of damaging our neighborhoods.”

To appeal to non-traditional GOP supporters, the messaging wasn’t entirely consistent. Days after awarding Teamsters President Sean O’Brien a highlighted speaking slot, Trump launched a vicious attack on the head of the United Auto Workers during a segment of his address. Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., entered the stage shortly after gay Trump foreign policy advisor Ric Grenell stated in his speech on Wednesday that Trump “disregards your sexual orientation, race (Black, Brown, or White), gender, or sexual orientation.” Gaetz claimed that under Trump, “there were two genders.”

Although Trump attempted to court these voters with similar pleas during the 2020 convention, this week’s version was by far his most forceful and illuminating attempt to yet, especially given the speaker. Model and OnlyFans performer Amber Rose said she didn’t think Trump was sincere at first until she did some independent study. She was the speaker who most strongly suggested that conventional social conservative themes should be shelved in order to better appeal to nontraditional voters.

“I’m coming to you tonight with a humble message because the left told me to despise Trump,” Rose stated. And even worse, to despise those who support him on the opposing side. The truth becomes apparent when you see past the lies. Family life in America was better under Donald Trump’s presidency.

Regarding the economy, O’Brien’s speech, which attacked the Chamber of Commerce and Business Roundtable, suggested a willingness to challenge some conservative economic dogma.

Riley Moore, the treasurer for the state of West Virginia and the front-runner for a congressional seat there this fall, said of O’Brien’s speech, “I wasn’t sure how it was going to go.” However, I believe that when he witnessed the greeting he received here, it symbolized to me a very solid national partnership. JD Vance perfectly captures that change. It seems to be happening quickly, too. This Republican Party is about to undergo a radical transformation. It has been since Trump was elected, and Vance will carry on with it.

Biden’s supporters pounced swiftly on the labor movement’s backlash against O’Brien’s speech. “Some would rather that employees believe what Trump says and disregard his past actions as president,” the AFL-CIO’s official X account wrote as he was speaking. We didn’t forget, though. He’ll continue exactly where he left off, dismantling worker rights, and defunding entire branches of the government that the public depends on, as demonstrated by Project 2025.

However, according to two labor sources, there is a real electoral threat to Democrats. One source claimed that rank-and-file union members are beginning to embrace “far-right MAGA ideology.” According to NBC News polling data, Democrats continue to lead in the race among voters in union households, but the gap is closing.

Meanwhile, Milwaukee Republicans claimed that the messaging properly balanced the needs of the base with those of expanding the tent.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee chair, Senator Steve Daines of Montana, told NBC News that, to borrow a Goldilocks expression, “The porridge’s temperature is nearly perfect.” “The working class of this nation is [saying] the Democrats are moving too far to the left,” he continued.

Prior to the convention, the Republican platform was crafted, setting the initial tone. In an attempt to prevent conservatives from moving the platform too far to the right on issues like same-sex marriage and abortion, which have been platform staples for years, Trump’s backers actively participated in the fights over who would serve on the platform committee before any words were written.

According to a person familiar with the process, Trump actively participated in the crafting and editing of the brief platform, which did contain some language on abortion. However, it did not go nearly as far as previous GOP platforms or the positions that anti-abortion rights activists campaigned for this time. Additionally, same-sex marriage was not mentioned. They also mentioned other culture war topics that have gained traction since the outbreak, like prohibiting transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports.

The GOP’s convention path was nonetheless met with some opposition.

Described as “electric,” O’Brien’s address was hailed by Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., who claimed the platform nailed its planks on the populist economic front. However, he did not see why Republicans would turn away from conventional social conservative principles.

“Republicans, in my opinion, should be ardently supporting life rights on principle, but this program seems to me to dilute that,” Hawley stated. “I don’t see any reason to do that,” she continued. I’m just not sure why. That seems like there isn’t a good justification.

He went on, “I just think it’s an electoral error.” It doesn’t seem to provide you with anything. Making a compromise on that, in my opinion, irritates conservative, pro-life evangelical, conservative Catholic voters. The same holds true for marriage. Although I’m not familiar with the computation, I believe it is foolish.

However, a conservative think tank employee claimed they didn’t see any electoral consequences for Trump if he backed off of those concerns.

This person claimed, “Trump didn’t care much about those issues before 2016.” He changed his image to reflect his concern for these problems. That was a ploy to win over Christian supporters. And now that he’s got it, he possesses it. That won’t cause him to lose it. Because of his ambiguous stance on abortion, a significant portion of ardent pro-life evangelicals will abstain from voting and stay at home.

GOP delegate from South Carolina Mike Elder thought it was a wise move to soften the message and appear less “hard line.” He enjoyed Rose’s and O’Brien’s addresses.

He declared, “We want to win,” and continued, “Trump has been through this before; he knows where he’s getting and losing support.”

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