Protesters gathered in Milwaukee on Monday to protest against the Republican National Convention on the first day of the 2024 Republican National Convention.
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MILWAUKEE — While GOP delegates gathered on the floor of Fiserv Forum on Monday, progressive activists rallied outside the convention. Carrying homemade signs decrying “racist and reactionary Republican policies,” protesters took to the streets to shout their message over the Secret Service cordons and fences surrounding the official Republican convention site.
“It’s hot, but we’re happy to be here,” said Lisa Taylor, who marched with other members of the Progressive Labour Party.
Organizers expected more than 5,000 people from across the United States to attend in a show of solidarity against Donald Trump. Republican presidential candidate. The crowd that turned out for the march in sweltering downtown Milwaukee was ultimately much smaller, despite the range of causes and issues being expressed.
Nadine Saylor wears a shirt that reads “Stop Project 2025” during a rally at the March to the Republican National Convention on the first day of the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Monday.
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“Trump is the result of us not showing up,” worried Nadine Saylor, who came from Waldorf, Maryland, and stood in the hot sun wearing a colorful homemade banner and bright blue eyeliner.
Thaler said his biggest concern was Project 2025, a 900-page plan for reforming the federal government developed by the Heritage Foundation. The conservative group has said Trump would adopt the plan on his first day back in the Oval Office if elected, but the former president has sought to distance himself from it.
“I know they want to erase Black people and our contributions. I know they want to abolish the Department of Education. I know they want to de-fan the FBI. And I know they want to use the Department of Justice to prosecute his ‘enemies’ – those who oppose his fascist policies,” she said quickly. “Yes, I know a lot about that.”
Army veteran Renee Branford is more concerned about Donald Trump’s second term as commander in chief. “He swore an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States as president,” she said. “But he didn’t take that oath during the January 6th insurrection.”
Organizers said the march included representatives of more than 120 progressive causes, including abortion, immigration and LGBTQ+ rights advocates and opponents of Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza. But the overall message was anti-Trump, which New York dealer Stan Simberg was happy to provide in button form.
Protesters gathered in Milwaukee on Monday to protest against the Republican National Convention on the first day of the 2024 Republican National Convention.
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Protesters gather for a march on the RNC on the first day of the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 15, 2024.
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“So we have trinkets that say, ‘Non-Felon for President,'” Shimberg explained, pointing to a row of trinkets with slogans on a pushcart. “We also have one that says, ‘Another Mean Girl Against Trump,'” Shimberg said, referring to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, when he first started traveling as a button salesman.
“If he died tomorrow, I’d be a little conflicted,” he laughed, as a few potential customers looked at his wares. “I’d be very happy to see him gone, but my business would be gone soon.”
The shadow of the assassination attempt on President Trump just days earlier loomed over the rally, with protesters on motorcycles and horseback riding through police lines across multiple states, a fresh reminder of the recent tragedy at the Pennsylvania rally. Demonstrators were quick to denounce the political violence, with some joking about wanting to get their chants within “ear” of the former president.
Protesters gather for a march on the RNC on the first day of the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 15, 2024.
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A guide waits as police officers clear the roads for protesters to the Republican National Convention on Monday, during the first day of the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
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The March on the RNC coalition fought bitterly over the final route of the march, suing the City of Milwaukee and the U.S. Secret Service over the creation of a security zone that would ensure their slogans were at least audible to RNC attendees, and push the protests far enough away that they could not be heard by RNC attendees.
Protest organizers lost their lawsuit but struck a “handshake deal” with the city to allow the march closer to the convention’s Fiserv Forum. But ultimately, protesters say Republican delegates are not the audience they should be suing.
“We’re not here for the Republican Party, we’re here to raise people’s demands,” said Menneli Escales, who attended with other Filipino American student activists from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Protesters gather for a march on the RNC on the first day of the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 15, 2024.
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“We’re here to expose both parties, because they’re two sides of the same coin,” she said, touching on a common theme among this audience: dissatisfaction with President Biden as a candidate.
Escales said the real opportunity for protest will come next month in her college town of Chicago, where delegates at the Democratic National Convention might be more willing to listen.
“This was just to prepare us and motivate us,” she said.
