• Slug: BC-CNS-Unity 2024 RNC. 940 words.
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By Amaia J. Gavica
Cronkite News

MILWAUKEE – After four speech-filled nights at the Republican convention, Arizona delegates said they’ll return home more enthused than ever about former President Donald Trump.

State Rep. Alexander Kolodin, R-Scottsdale, a first-time delegate, said the Fiserv Forum felt “electric,” especially when Trump arrived Monday, two days after an assassination attempt.

“You can’t get more drama than that,” he said.

The electricity peaked again Thursday night as Trump accepted the nomination, and delegates said they’ll leave Milwaukee with a sense of Republican unity around Trump that was even stronger than when they arrived.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the last in-person convention was in 2016.

State Sen. Anthony Kern, R-Glendale, was in Cleveland for that one, too. Trump had clinched the nomination and would go on to win the White House but many Republicans were still weren’t sold on him.

Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, the runner-up for the nomination, was roundly booed at the 2016 convention when he urged delegates to “vote your conscience” in November – pointedly avoiding saying that he would be voting for Trump, or that they should.

“I did not see the unity that I do see now,” said Kern, one of three delegates facing criminal charges as a fake elector over their 2020 efforts to award Arizona’s electors to Trump despite his 10,000-vote defeat.

Energy and unity were common descriptions among delegates.

“The entire theme of this convention has been unity,” said Tyler Farnsworth, an alternate delegate from Tucson.

“This is a party that is led by Donald Trump,” he added, “and he did a great job at putting together a very simple platform so this doesn’t read like the U.S. tax code.”

The GOP platform adopted on Monday is much shorter than usual – only 16 pages, a drastic decrease from the 66-page platform adopted in 2016 and reaffirmed in 2020.

The previous platform mentioned “abortion” 35 times. The new one uses it only once. It focuses mostly on border control and immigration, education policies and affordability.

With unity so prominent at this convention, Republicans have projected openness and inclusion, said Ray Michaels, a delegate from Scottsdale.

“You see the unity here at this amazing convention where we brought in people from all places, everywhere, welcoming everyone,” he said on the convention floor Thursday night.

Michaels stressed the focus on inclusion.

“I just want everybody to know out there that the Republican Party is just that. It’s Republican. It’s open to everybody,” he said.

This year’s RNC was certainly different from the one in 2020, early in the COVID-19 pandemic. The party pulled out of Charlotte, N.C., when the state refused to waive pandemic restrictions on crowds. Unable to find a venue where thousands of delegates could pack together indoors and cheer the incumbent president, the GOP shifted to a virtual format.

But organizers found ways to keep things interesting.

At one point during that convention, Trump appeared in a video and announced a pardon for a convicted bank robber who’d turned his life around. Another video showed him presiding over a naturalization ceremony at the White House, swearing in five new citizens who later said they had no idea the event would be aired at the convention.

In another norm-busting but highly practical move, given the circumstances, Trump accepted the nomination from the South Lawn of the White House.

This year’s convention used other tools in hopes of keeping viewers’ attention.

Hundreds of LED panels hung from the ceiling, controlled with motors to create a 3D and changeable backdrop.

Michelle Altherr, a delegate from Goodyear, said the aesthetics of the event kept her engaged.

“The speakers that they’ve had and the energy, the band. It’s just been fantastic,” she said.

Security, always intense at conventions, took on new significance after the attempt on Trump’s life Saturday.

“The big difference is security,” said Jonathan Salant, a journalist at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette covering his 19th national party convention since 1984. “Once you get through security… it’s such a pain you don’t want to go out anymore.”

He’s seen security get progressively more intense since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks but said it felt extreme this year.

Arizona delegates, however, felt the security was a comforting and necessary measure.

“It was fantastic. I felt safe,” said Joshua Lyons, a delegate from Maricopa County.

Online, the Arizona delegation endured razzing over their subpar real estate on the arena floor: way in the back at roughly 2 o’clock from the lectern where Trump accepted the nomination.

Worse, the main seating area was about a dozen seats short to accommodate all 43 Arizona delegates.

Behind them, in what detractors dubbed a “closet” – marked by a sign that jokingly labeled it as the “AZ VIP lounge” – were another two dozen chairs. This area was enclosed on three sides, blocking the view of the speaker and of most of the convention floor.

Delegations from other battleground states enjoyed places of honor – as Arizona Republicans had in 2012, when Mitt Romney was the nominee and they got front row seats in Tampa.

Tom O’Connor, a delegate from California, said he wasn’t the least bit jealous of Arizona’s outlying seat assignments in Milwaukee.

“Why would you put your VIPs in the back?” he said.

Lyons enjoyed the space, though. For one thing, he said, the people watching was great. Delegates snagged selfies with VIPs as they walked by along the perimeter of the floor.

“They’ve got great mood lighting,” he said. “There’s room for activities, luxury seats, premium view. (They) put us out here for a lot of dignitaries to come by. It’s been fantastic.”

For more stories from Cronkite News, visit cronkitenews.azpbs.org.