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MILWAUKEE (AP) — Cheering GOP delegates formally nominated Donald Trump for president at Monday’s Republican National Convention kickoff, less than two days after an assassination attempt on the former president and shortly after he announced Ohio Sen. JD Vance as his vice presidential running mate.
Their vote makes it official that Trump, who has long been the presumptive nominee, will lead the GOP in a third consecutive election. The winner in 2016, he lost to current President Joe Biden in 2020. In November, he will again face Biden, who dismissed Vance as “a clone” of Trump on important issues.
Even as the delegates were voting, Trump announced he had chosen as his running mate the young Ohio senator, who rose to national attention with his best-selling memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy.”
Trump’s son Eric announced Florida’s votes, which put the former president over the top for the nomination. Video screens in the arena read “OVER THE TOP” while the song “Celebration” played and delegates danced and waved Trump signs. Thoughout the voting, delegates flanked by “Make America Great Again” signs applauded as state after state voted their support for Trump’s second term.
Saturday's shooting at a Pennsylvania rally, where Trump was injured and one man died, was not far from delegates' minds as they celebrated - a stark contrast to the anger and anxiety that had marked the previous few days. Some delegates chanted “fight, fight, fight” — the same words that Trump was seen shouting to the crowd as the Secret Service ushered him off the stage, his fist raised and face bloodied.
“We should all be thankful right now that we are able to cast our votes for President Donald J. Trump after what took place on Saturday,” said New Jersey state Sen. Michael Testa as he announced all of his state's 12 delegates for Trump.
Wyoming delegate Sheryl Foland was among those who adopted the “fight” chant after seeing Trump survive Saturday in what she called “monumental photos and video.”
“We knew then we were going to adopt that as our chant,” added Foland, a child trauma mental health counselor. “Not just because we wanted him to fight, and that God was fighting for him. We thought, isn’t it our job to accept that challenge and fight for our country?”
“It’s bigger than Trump,” Foland said. “It’s a mantra for our country.”
Trump's campaign chiefs had designed the convention to feature a softer and more optimistic message, focusing on themes that would help a divisive leader expand his appeal among moderate voters and people of color.
With the shooting, however, the Democrats’ turmoil after the debate, the GOP’s potential governing agenda and even Trump’s criminal convictions became secondary to concerns about political violence and the country's stability. Trump and his allies will make their case during their four-day convention in Milwaukee unquestionably united and motivated in the wake of the attack.
Vivek Ramaswamy, who ran in the GOP presidential primary, has distinguished himself as one of the more aggressive voices on the right, saying often that the country is already at war with itself. So it was notable that in remarks at an event run by the conservative Heritage Institute at the RNC on Monday he was toning down his rhetoric and urging the country to come together.
“The enemy is not the Democrats, it is an ideology,” Ramaswamy told the crowd at Heritage’s “Policy Fest” event.
Some well-timed good news was also affecting the mood on the convention floor Monday: The federal judge presiding over Trump's classified documents case dismissed the prosecution because of concerns over the appointment of the prosecutor who brought the case, handing the former president a major court victory.
Trump announced JD Vance as his running mate Monday afternoon, just before he clinched the Republican nomination. The former president's family and biggest allies quickly lauded the decision as a good one for the direction of the Republican Party.
Moments after the decision was public, Trump's son Donald Trump Jr. told CNN in an interview that Vance was an “incredible guy with an amazing story" who will help “unify this country."
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, who had been considered as a potential vice presidential pick, said in a post on X that Vance's “small town roots and service to country make him a powerful voice for the America First Agenda.”
In an interview Sunday, Republican Party chairman Michael Whatley said the convention’s programming wouldn't be changed after the shooting. The agenda, he said, will feature more than 100 speakers focused on kitchen table issues and Trump’s plans to lift everyday working Americans.
“We have to be able to lay out a vision for where we want to take this country," he said.
Whatley said the central message would have little to do with Biden’s political struggles, Trump’s grievances about the 2020 election or the ex-president’s promises to exact retribution against political enemies.
“We are going to have the convention that we have been planning for the last 18 months," he said. "We are a combination of relieved and grateful that the president is going to be here and is going to accept the nomination.”
In addition to formally naming Trump the nominee, delegates from across the nation will turn to updating the GOP’s policy platform for the first time since 2016. The scaled-down platform proposal — just 16 pages with limited specifics on key issues, including abortion — reflects a desire by the Trump campaign to avoid giving Democrats more material on campaign issues.
The platform approved by a committee last week doesn't include an explicit call for a national abortion ban, two years after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and ended a federally guaranteed right to abortion.
“More divisiveness would not be healthy,” said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council.
There will be reminders of Trump’s record in a speaking program that includes a handful of Republicans charged with crimes related to other political violence — the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Former White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, who's in jail on contempt of Congress charges, is expected to speak at the convention just hours after his release. He was found guilty in September after refusing to cooperate with a congressional investigation into the Capitol attack.
Trump has repeatedly cast the people involved in efforts to overturn the 2020 election, including his many supporters who stormed the Capitol, as political prisoners.
For now, Democrats have scaled back their plans to offer a competing message during the Republican convention, and has pulled down campaign ads in the wake of the attempted assassination of Trump.
Hundreds of demonstrators converged on downtown Milwaukee to protest around the RNC, saying the assassination attempt won’t affect their long-standing plans to demonstrate outside the site.
The activists called attention to issues such as abortion rights, economic justice and the war in Gaza. As they marched, the atmosphere was festive, with music playing over loud speakers, a man strumming a guitar and vendors selling T-shirts and buttons supporting both Republicans and Democrats.
Activists carried signs that read, “Stand with Palestine,” “We Can No Longer Afford the Rich,” and “Defend and Expand Immigrant Rights.”
The protesters' movements were restricted as part of enhanced security precautions established by the Secret Service.
Security officials previously announced that people just outside the Secret Service perimeter would be allowed to carry guns openly or concealed as permitted by state law. Wisconsin statutes outlaw only machine guns, short-barreled shotguns and silencers.
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Associated Press writer Christine Fernando reported from Chicago. AP writers Ali Swenson in Minneapolis and Farnoush Amiri, Thomas Beaumont, Michelle L. Price and Sophia Tareen in Milwaukee contributed.