Red Carpet, B l u e C i ty

GOP convention veteran Reince Priebus says he wants fellow Republicans to feel the love when they arrive next summer in the Democratic stronghold of Milwaukee.

Reince Priebus knows conventions. Priebus, a Kenosha native, has been to four full-scale Republican National Conventions, starting in 1992, when he attended the Houston gathering as president of the UW-Whitewater College Republicans. He returned in 2008, leading Wisconsin's delegation to St. Paul as state party chair. He helped run the 2012 Tampa and 2016 Cleveland conventions as national party chair. He also attended the much-abbreviated 2020 proceedings in Washington.

Now, Priebus is chair of the host committee for his party's 2024 convention in Milwaukee. In that role, he's leading efforts to raise $65 million for the event and to ensure Republicans feel welcome in this largely blue city.

Many Americans know Priebus mainly from his sometimes-rocky association with former President Donald Trump. Priebus was an early Trump supporter who drew the 2016 GOP nominee's wrath by urging him to drop out of the race after his offensive comments about women on the “Access Hollywood” set surfaced. Trump's divisive racial rhetoric also conflicted with the recommendations of the 2012 election strategy “autopsy” that Priebus commissioned as party chair, which urged Republicans to reach out to people of color.

Yet when Trump won, he named Priebus as his White House chief of staff – only to fire him a year later. Priebus says he's since patched up his relationship with Trump, who as of early January was the only declared candidate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

In his day job, Priebus is in charge of the Washington office of the Milwaukee-based law firm of Michael Best & Friedrich, where he serves as president and chief strategist. He splits his time between his homes in Kenosha and Alexandria, Virginia.

Priebus talked to Milwaukee Magazine about convention plans and the future of the party.

What exactly does the host committee do?

Its main objective is to highlight how great Milwaukee is and set us up for more business and more opportunities like this, so that when people come to Milwaukee, they say, “Wow, I had no idea how awesome this place is. I'd like to do an event here or go on vacation here.” What's unique about me being the chair of the host committee is that I oversaw the last two conventions that the RNC actually put on. I don't know if that's ever happened before. I don't think it has.

What will the convention mean for the regional economy?

It's like bringing four Super Bowls in a row to a city. Look at Cleveland, at all the great things that happened

since we had our convention – in the NBA [2022 All-Star Game], in Major League Baseball [2019 All-Star Game], in conventions. That experience was so positive that to this day, people still talk about what a great week it was. That potential is there for Milwaukee. I would expect that almost every single hotel in the greater Milwaukee area will be booked. That means Racine, Kenosha, all the WOW counties and north of there. Anywhere that you can drive within 30 minutes, you're going to have hotels booked.

How is fundraising going?

We have very generous people in Wisconsin who have already committed to a huge investment. Those are bipartisan efforts. The advantage is that Milwaukee just put together a framework of commitments to raise money for the DNC, and a lot of those businesses are going to come in to the RNC as well, because this isn't about politics. This is about featuring the city of Milwaukee, and businesses in Wisconsin support that.

Are you concerned about violence at the convention?

I don't have a concern, because I've been through the planning process at other conventions. That was a concern as well in Cleveland, but the way that worked with the federal government and local police was pretty remarkable. I think that things in Milwaukee are going to be very smooth. You have to strike a balance between giving people the freedom to move, making sure that businesses are open, and handling people's right to protest. The other big advantage here is that Milwaukee has already been through this planning process with the federal government and the Secret Service. We're not coming up with it for the first time.

Will your up-and-down background with ex-President Trump help or hurt you as host committee chair?

I think it helps. I've got a good relationship with President Trump. I think the White House was up and down [laughs], but besides that, it's been great. I would say it's always helpful to have good relations with whomever the nominee is going to be.

What about other potential candidates, like former Vice President Mike Pence, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley and others?

I'm in a unique position, in that I have great relationships with all of them. I've just tended to get along with people. I just put my head down and would just rather get along than pick fights with people, so politically, I've been able to survive because of the way I've approached politics and difficult things that happen in politics, especially at the national level. And I think that I've managed all that pretty well, considering that I've been through the wringer quite a few times.

Is questioning the 2020 election – and even the Constitution itself – a winning position for Republicans?

You can look at the results. A lot of the folks who concentrated mostly on those issues didn't fare very well. I think people can look at that and come to their own conclusions. But certainly what you're going to do for people in the future seems to be more of a winning message.

If you look at the outcome of the [2022] election, Republicans outperformed Democrats in turnout, but there were too many Republicans not voting for Republicans. That, to me, is a messaging problem more than a turnout problem. Obviously, if you have [Gov.] Brian Kemp winning easily in Georgia, and you have [Trump-backed GOP candidate] Herschel Walker losing twice [in the U.S. Senate general and runoff elections] with the same electorate, there's broad disconnect where you have Republicans turning out and not actually voting for the Republican candidate.

It turns out that voters sometimes have minds of their own. It's up to candidates to make sure that their messages are straight and aligned with the people who are turning out and voting. It's pretty simple stuff, actually.