As the US Presidential Elections are held every four years in November, the Republicans and the Democrats conduct televised conventions to nominate their president and vice-president candidates.
With the elections being few months away now, the Republican party is set to hold a Republican National Convention of the 2024 election on July 15 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Notably, Wisconsin is a battleground state with 10 Electoral College votes, reported Al Jazeera.
Donald Trump has been the de facto nominee of the party for months after the Republican primaries.
A primary election is conducted in the US to select candidates to run for the presidency every four years. The elections can be closed only allowing the respected party members to vote for the candidate, they can be open allowing voters to select candidates without any affiliation with the party.
Moreover, the primaries can be direct and indirect as well. In a direct primary election, voters decide their party’s candidates and in an indirect primary, voters choose delegates who then choose a party’s running candidates at a nominating convention. A primary is held 6-9 months before an election in most states of the US.
How long will the convention run?
The Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin will run from July 15 to July 18.
Where will the convention take place?
For the convention, several venues have been selected such as the Baird Center, Fiserv Forum (a basketball stadium) and the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena (a hockey and football stadium).
How many people are expected to attend the convention?
About 50,000 people are expected to attend the four-day event including politicians, media officials, law enforcement officials and staff.
The general public is not going to attend the event as it is going to be a high-profile ordeal with several days of speeches including a final speech from Trump.
Of the 50,000 attendees, 2,429 are going to be state delegates attending the event on behalf of their respective states and will vote for the candidate to run for the presidency.
What can we expect from the convention?
The primary objective of a convention is the nomination process but it is also a political event where a party platform is confirmed. Notably, a party platform lays out the agenda for the party to work for.
How does the nomination process work?
The Republicans and Democrats use a system of primaries and caucuses to select their presidential candidate but the US Constitution does not specify how a party should select its candidates.
Results of the primaries and caucuses ascertain how many state delegates a candidate receives. Afterwards, that number of delegates vote for the nominee at the convention.
Trump holds exactly 2,265 delegates after winning every caucus and primary election despite challenges. He only lost the state-level elections in New Hampshire and Washington DC.
