Pa. delegates are in the spotlight as RNC kicks off after Trump assassination attempt

WAUKESHA, Wis. — Pennsylvania’s delegates to the Republican National Convention gathered Monday morning as the convention kicked off amid a renewed spotlight on them and the swing state they call home — and a very good day for their political hero, former President Donald Trump.

”Because of what happened Saturday evening, the eyes of the world are on us,” the delegation chair Jim Worthington said at Monday’s state delegation breakfast in Waukesha, a suburb of Milwaukee.

The assassination attempt against Trump that occurred in their home state, at a rally about a dozen of the delegates all attended, has already become a rallying cry for this week and the campaign ahead. Several Pennsylvania delegates and elected officials were sitting near the front of the stage when Trump was shot in Butler, Pa., stood together in Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum to officially nominate him.

“Madam Secretary, the great commonwealth of Pennsylvania … the birthplace of our nation and Constitution and Independence Hall, proudly casts all of its 67 votes for the bravest man in America, Donald J. Trump,” Worthington said from the floor.

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Delegates here on the first day of the convention expressed extreme confidence in Trump’s path in the critical state, as he selected Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance as his vice presidential nominee and a judge threw out a court case pending against him.

“It is a euphoric day to bring unity to the Republican party,” delegate Michael McMullen said from the convention floor in a Pittsburgh Steelers jersey, shortly after the official nomination. McMullen, who is from Western Pennsylvania, was also at the Butler rally. “That horrible day showed we’re battle-ready, battle-tested and Nov. 5 cannot come soon enough.”

Earlier in the day, Worthington recounted the defiant image of Trump, fist raised after he was shot Saturday, walking off stage.

“It is now our turn to do the same thing, because the future of America is dependent upon Pennsylvania,” Worthington said. “Make no mistake about it.”

The state delegation breakfast, typically a casual gathering in a hotel ballroom, was opened up to members of the media, who huddled in the back behind rope lines.

News broke during the breakfast that a judge had dismissed charges against Trump for alleged mishandling of classified documents.

“This returns the decision of who our next president is to the people,” state Republican Party chair Lawrence Tabas said as he announced the news to a standing ovation from delegates, who burst into applause.

» READ MORE: Judge dismisses Donald Trump’s charges over alleged mishandling of classified documents

As a sign of the Pennsylvania delegation’s importance, House Speaker Mike Johnson is scheduled to speak to delegates at their breakfast Tuesday and Lara and Eric Trump are also slated to make appearances.

”There’s a reason they’re coming here and they’re not going to Alaska,” Worthington said.

Speakers on Monday included state Treasurer Stacy Garrity, Ted Christian, and radio host Rich Zeoli.

Delegates and speakers voiced renewed confidence in the path ahead for Trump in Pennsylvania.

Zeoli predicted President Joe Biden would remain his party’s nominee despite calls from Democrats for him to step aside. “What Democrat in their right mind wants to run against Donald Trump now?” Zeoli said. “Donald Trump is on track now to win in an even greater landslide.”

While it’s unlikely Trump will unite a deeply divided nation, he has certainly united a party in which he enjoyed some tepid, reluctant support.

“Gosh, six to nine months ago people were still trying to have one foot on his side and one foot on the other,” Garrity said, noting some politicians had been reluctant to openly support or campaign with Trump for fear it could cost them in swing areas.

“Instead of hiding their support, now everybody’s coming out,” she said.

Delegate Jeff Bartos, a former GOP Senate candidate from Montgomery County, likened the assassination attempt to other pivotal Pennsylvania moments that helped write the nation’s history. ”Whether you go to Gettysburg or you see the steel forged in Western Pennsylvania, the idea that there would be another event in Pennsylvania that changed the entire conversation and moved us into this incredibly unifying force behind President Trump seems significant.”

» READ MORE: In sleepy Butler, Pa., emails of praise and threats are inundating city workers: ‘You failed’

The breakfast also included calls for less violent rhetoric in politics, though there were plenty of jabs at Democrats in the room and in programming surrounding the convention. Trump has said he rewrote his acceptance speech to focus more on unity and less on attacking Biden.

”Where we go from here is the question,” U.S. Rep. Dan Meuser (R., Pa.) said at the breakfast. “What do we do? There’s talk of unity. Is this a clarifying moment of unity? Let’s do our best to make it that.”

Meuser then added: “But did you see by any chance the release that Democrats put out on our platform? It was full of hate.”

GOP Senate nominee Dave McCormick called for a moratorium on negative campaigning in his race against Democratic Sen. Bob Casey, whose campaign said it had already suspended ads in the wake of the assassination attempt.

Delegates seemed generally elated about a week in which Trump narrowly survived a shooting and had a legal case thrown out.

“Trump, when he got up, he said, ‘fight,’” said John Grenci, an alternate delegate from Butler who was with his wife at the rally, just a few yards from the stage when Trump was shot.

“And you know, the stakes have never been higher. I really think if he just sticks to his winning message, there’s no stopping him.”