Cleveland
The New York Republican delegation erupted in cheers as Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York” blasted throughout the Quicken Loans Arena Tuesday evening. Flanked by Donald Trump’s other three adult children, Donald Trump Jr. had just announced that with the state’s 95 delegates, his father had secured the necessary majority. Across the aisle, sitting at the head of his own delegation, Wisconsin governor Scott Walker stood up and pulled out his iPhone. He snapped a photo of the giant screen proclaiming Trump was “OVER THE TOP” then offered some polite applause for the newly minted Republican nominee.
“I thought it was pretty neat, having the kids up there,” Walker told me as he waited for the convention chair to reach the Wisconsin delegation for its roll-call vote.
The two-term governor seemed to be taking Trump’s nomination in stride, considering just last month Walker was still unwilling to express full support Trump. Walker told a reporter from Wisconsin’s WKOW in June that he wasn’t ready to support Trump. “In particular, I want to make sure he renounces what he says—at least in regards to this judge,” he said.
The judge was Gonzalo Curiel, a federal judge presiding over the Trump University case. Trump had suggested the judge was biased against him in the suit because the America-born Hispanic Curiel was “a Mexican.” Trump has not publicly renounced those comments, but Walker since agreed to speak in Cleveland (his speech is Wednesday night) and says now he’ll be voting for Trump over Hillary Clinton. Here’s what he told me on the floor of the RNC Tuesday night:
A few minutes later, the chair recognized the Wisconsin delegation. The state’s party chair turned over the microphone to the man he called “America’s governor.” The delegates went wild, and Walker announced his state’s votes: “The birthplace of the Republican party, the home of the 13-time world champion Green Bay Packers, and the home of the greatest motorcycles in the world, Harley-Davidson—pursuant to our rules, cast 36 votes for Ted Cruz and 6 votes for the next president of the United States, Donald J. Trump.”
This time, the applause from the Wisconsin Republicans was half-hearted as Walker applauded, politely.
