Republicans to descend on Milwaukee – where they’ve been trying to dilute Black voting power

Nearly 223,000 Black people live in Milwaukee – roughly 60% of Wisconsin’s entire Black population. Illustration: Guardian Design

Shortly after the 2022 midterm elections , Robert Spindell sent an email to his fellow Republicans explaining why he was pleased with the results despite Democrat Tony Evers winning a second term.

Spindell, one of three Republicans on the body overseeing elections in Wisconsin, stated, “we can be especially proud of the City of Milwaukee (80.2% Dem vote) casting 37,000 less votes than cast in the 2018 election with the major reduction happening in the overwhelming Black and Hispanic areas.”

This comment sparked outrage and calls for Spindell to resign. Spindell, who also served as a fake elector in 2020, refused, saying, “The last thing I want to do is suppress votes.”

While it was shocking to see a top Republican official openly celebrating lower voter turnout, it wasn't surprising to see Republicans pleased with fewer votes in Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s most populous city.

Nearly 223,000 Black people live in Milwaukee —roughly 60% of Wisconsin’s entire Black population. This means that Black voters in the city can significantly impact state election outcomes. They have long been a stronghold of Democratic votes and are crucial for any Democrat aiming to win the state. ( More than one out of every 10 votes Joe Biden received in Wisconsin in 2020 came from Milwaukee). Activists have long recognized attacks on the city as veiled attacks on Black voters.

Now Republicans are set to descend on the city they have long criticized to formally nominate Donald Trump for a second term at the Republican National Convention in July.

“They’re not coming here because they love the city of Milwaukee at all,” said Angela Lang, the executive director of Black Leaders Organizing Communities , a nonprofit in the city. The decision to hold the GOP convention in Milwaukee, a city Lang said Republicans often “say racist dog whistles about” was a “slap in the face.”

Republicans have not hesitated to use coded language to attack the city. In 2013, as Republicans debated a measure to curtail early voting, state senator Scott Fitzgerald said, “the question of where this is coming from and why are we doing this and why are we trying to disenfranchise people, I mean, I say it’s because the people I represent in the 13th district continue to ask me, ‘What is going on in Milwaukee?’”

Donald Trump has also directly insulted Milwaukee, reportedly telling fellow Republicans in June it was a “ horrible city .”

Both Democrats and Republicans have touted the economic benefits the event will bring to the city. Reince Priebus, the former RNC chair who led the effort to bring the convention to Milwaukee, said having the event in the city would bring around $200 million in economic benefits and would focus Republican attention on Wisconsin, a critical battleground state. The convention, Priebus said in 2023, “can turn a purple state where only 20,000 people will decide who those electoral votes will go to.”

“They have no shame,” said Greg Lewis, a minister in Milwaukee who leads Souls to the Polls, a nonprofit that works to educate churchgoers and encourage them to vote. Historically, the program has been remarkably successful in mobilizing Black voters.shoot up grocery stores with people that look like me, they find home in the Republican party, and now we’re rolling out the red carpet to them in a predominantly Black and brown city that is largely Democratic, and I think that is a recipe for disaster,” Lang said.

Still, Lang plans to use the convention as an opportunity to educate voters about the importance of their vote.

“If people are like, ‘I don’t really believe in politics or it’s so dysfunctional, I have no faith in it right now,’ well, there’s one party in particular that is happy when you don’t vote,” she said. Source: The Guardian