It is a moment of political pomp and pageantry in the United States, unfurling near the mid-point of a presidential election year: the national party convention.
Every four years, both the Republicans and Democrats hold massive, televised conventions to officially nominate their candidates for president and vice president.
And on July 15, the Republican Party opens the first convention of the 2024 election cycle. The four-day event will take place in the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, located in a critical battleground state.
Former President Donald Trump, who has been the party’s de facto nominee for months after sweeping aside a field of challengers during the Republican primaries, is expected to use the convention stage to put to rest any questions of his dominance over the party.
“This is very much the Trump show,” Thad Kousser, a professor of political science at the University of California at San Diego, told Al Jazeera. “The convention will demonstrate how fully the party has embraced him.”
What can voters expect from the convention? How does the nomination process work, and what election issues will be in the spotlight? We answer these questions and more in this quick explainer.
Where and when will the convention take place?
The Republican National Convention will take place from July 15 through July 18 in the Midwestern city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Several downtown venues have been selected for the multi-day event, including the Baird Center, a convention centre; Fiserv Forum, a basketball stadium; and the UW–Milwaukee Panther Arena, which hosts hockey and football games.
Who will attend the convention?
The city says it is expecting about 50,000 people at the conference, including politicians, visitors and media, as well as law enforcement and staff. The event is not open to the general public.
Part of the reason is the convention’s high-profile guest list. The Republican National Convention is a place for party officials to be and be seen, and the event features several days of speakers, leading up to an acceptance speech from Trump himself.
There will also be 2,429 delegates representing states and territories across the US. They ultimately vote for the party’s nominee for president.
What happens at a convention?
The main event is the nomination process: Delegates vote on the official party nominee, who traditionally accepts the role with a speech.
But the convention is also a place where the party platform is confirmed: It lays out a set of goals and ideals for the party to strive towards.
Since the advent of television, the conventions have become more grandiose, and they often feature a series of speeches from party luminaries and influential figures.
There are also opportunities for convention participants to socialise. At this year’s Republican National Convention, attendees can participate in a prayer breakfast, panel discussions and a tour of the local Harley-Davidson motorcycle museum.
How does the nomination process work?
While the US Constitution does not include any guidelines for how a party must select their presidential nominee, both Democrats and Republicans use a system of primaries and caucuses, a series of state-level elections.
The results of the primaries and caucuses determines how many delegates from each state a candidate receives. The delegates then gather at the convention to vote on the nominee.
Some delegates are “pledged” — or committed to voting according to their state’s voting results. Others are “unpledged” and free to vote as they please.
Trump currently holds 2,265 delegates after winning every caucus and primary except in New Hampshire and Washington, DC. There, his former Republican rival Nikki Haley prevailed.
Haley was the last major Republican to drop out of the primary race. On July 9, she released the 97 delegates she earned and encouraged them to vote for Trump at the Republican National Convention.
A critic of Trump during the race, Haley was not invited to the convention herself.
Who could Trump pick for vice president?
In the past, national party conventions often were the venue for revealing — and sometimes even picking — vice presidential nominees.
Trump is appears to be hewing closely to that tradition. Though he launched his latest presidential campaign in November 2022, he has yet to make his choice of a running mate public.
But his shortlist is reported to include Representative Elise Stefanik of New York, Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum.
A vice presidential candidate is often selected for their perceived ability to “balance” a ticket.
In other words, they often boast qualities the presidential nominee may lack, or they could hail from a state where the nominee might have limited appeal.
For example, during his first term in office, Trump’s vice president was former Indiana Governor Mike Pence. While Trump was brash and outspoken, Pence appeared more measured in public. He also appealed to evangelical and rural voters, a contrast with twice-divorced Trump, who hails from New York City.
Trump and Pence have since fallen out over the events of January 6, 2021. Pence has accused Trump of pressuring him to overturn the results of the 2020 election, as Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol to disrupt the vote certification.
What is the party platform?
The party platform is a document laying out the party’s priorities and official positions on a range of issues. Changes — or omissions — in a party platform can be a useful way to track which groups or trends are gaining momentum within a party.
In 2020, the GOP made the unorthodox decision not to release a platform at all.
Has the Republican National Committee released a party platform for 2024?
On July 8, the party’s platform committee adopted a platform that strongly reflects Trump’s priorities and blustering style.
“MAKE AMERICA THE DOMINANT ENERGY PRODUCER IN THE WORLD, BY FAR!” reads one of 20 promises in the platform, spelled out in capital letters — a style reminiscent of Trump’s social media posts.
“STRENGTHEN AND MODERNIZE OUR MILITARY, MAKING IT, WITHOUT QUESTION, THE STRONGEST AND MOST POWERFUL IN THE WORLD,” reads another bullet point.
The platform also features hardline rhetoric about immigration, with several points dedicated to the “migrant crime epidemic” and the “migrant invasion”. It promises to carry out the “largest deportation operation in American history”.
Which issues could be contested at the convention?
While the Republican Party has rallied behind Trump, schisms have emerged over a handful of issues.
Notably missing from the platform’s 20 promises is any reference to abortion, an issue which has caused electoral headaches for Republicans since the conservative-majority Supreme Court eliminated the federal right to the procedure in June 2022.
In the full 16-page platform document, a single mention of abortion can be found on page 15: “We will oppose Late Term Abortion.”
Some anti-abortion rights activists are already expressing displeasure at the omission, although the platform does pledge to roll back transgender rights, an issue that has become a priority for Christian conservatives within the Republican Party.
“They rolled us. That’s what they did,” Gayle Ruzicka, a Republican National Committee platform committee member, told WISN 12 News on Monday. “I’ve never seen this happen before. I don’t understand why they did it, and I’m extremely disappointed that we do not have any pro-life language.”
But Kousser, the political science professor, told Al Jazeera that the party is likely to keep such divides under a tight lid.
“It’s just not what modern conventions are about. Whatever internal discussions are taking place over issues like trade and abortion, you’re not going to see the party broadcasting them,” he said.
