MILWAUKEE — Media representatives at news organizations from around the country and the world are in Milwaukee this week for their first behind-the-scenes tour of the Republican National Convention (RNC) at Fiserv Forum and other key venues.
"It's going very well," said Reince Priebus, the RNC 2024 Host Committee Chair. "We've got a great partnership here in Milwaukee."
Priebus was @TheTable Wednesday night to talk about the ongoing preparations for the convention next summer.
"We've got a bipartisan group of people, Republicans and Democrats trying to help put this on," Priebus said. "The mayor has been great, the County Executive as well. Imagine, Republicans and Democrats working together. Can you believe it?"
50,000 visitors will be in Milwaukee for the July 15-18 national convention. Priebus and others are trying to raise $68 million to cover convention costs. He won't say how much has been raised yet - but he sounded optimistic.
"We're meeting all of our targets. When we start this thing, we lay out quarterly targets that we think we need to be added," said Priebus. "We've hit all those marks and exceeded them. So, I feel good about that part of this. It helps us as a nonprofit. It's a charitable donation, it's tax-deductible, and that makes a big difference."
Priebus says there's still a lot to do between now and the first political speeches inside Fiserv Forum.
"I think it's just getting ready for the security, the transportation," said Priebus. We've got a lot of hotels spread out between here, Madison to Kenosha, and we've got to bus everyone around and do it efficiently."
Priebus has been involved on the political side of conventions as the former Republican National Committee Chair, but this time around the U-W Whitewater graduate and Kenosha-raised resident has a personal connection to next year's convention.
"It's more special that it's here in Wisconsin, right in my backyard in Milwaukee."
Watch the full conversation in the video at the top of this article.
Charles Benson and Shannon Sims interview key people in our community during TMJ4's @TheTable segment weeknights at 10 p.m.
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