‘Red, White and Brew’: Republican Party Rallies Swing Voters With Series of Pub Events

Merchandise is offered for sale before Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at Trump National Doral Miami, Tuesday, July 9, 2024, in Doral, Fla. (Photo: Rebecca Blackwell/AP Images)

On July 15, the 2024 Republican National Convention will set up shop in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for a week of festivities that will establish the playing field in the upcoming presidential election. Donald Trump is expected to formally accept the Republican presidential nomination, name his vice presidential running mate and solidify his talking points for the heated campaign trail this summer.

City officials project that the RNC will bring upwards of 50,000 visitors to the city alongside $200 million in local gains, though the latter figure has been contested by some economists.

Amid a sea of red hats and MAGA rallying cries, beer is set to make a big splash in solidifying Trump’s base. Whether or not the strategy can sway swing voters is yet to be seen.

Booze Diplomacy

(Photo: Associated Press)

Browsing the RNC master event calendar for next week, we counted a total of 19 brewery and drinking-related events throughout the city. A welcome party planned a day before the Convention has been dubbed “Red, White and Brew” — not to be confused with three events put on at the nearby Red, White and Blue Bar hosted by the GOP Jamboree, Serbs for Trump and South Carolina Republican party chair Drew McKissick.

At local bars dotted throughout the area, you’ll find other soirées hosted by organizations like the National Defense Political Action Committee, APIAVote, Polaris National Security and GOP Winning Women 2024. Three are reportedly being hosted at event spaces owned by Pabst Blue Ribbon Brewery. At the punnily named Drink Wisconsibly Pub, the RNC is throwing five official convention watch parties Monday through Thursday. 

Recruiting booze to the cause is hardly an unprecedented political strategy; the Chicago Democratic National Convention, scheduled at the end of August, is slated to enlist its own array of breweries. Nonetheless, the time and place of the 2024 RNC clearly coincides with larger aspirations for the party.

After voting blue in seven consecutive elections, Wisconsin swung red in favor of Donald Trump in 2016, the first Republican president elected by the state since Ronald Reagan in 1980. In 2020, Biden narrowly reclaimed the area. Trump and Biden clinched their respective victories by just 0.77% and 0.63%. Recent polling for the 2024 election favors Trump’s odds in Wisconsin by a marginally higher 1.5%.

This year’s RNC — the first in history hosted in Milwaukee — is ideally positioned to rally swing voters in a state plainly described as “ground-zero on the road back to the White House” by Lara Trump and Michael Whatley. While the average “undecided” may not be attending the convention itself, a slew of events hosted throughout the city have a good chance of capturing attention.

The playbook has already been established elsewhere. In January, GOP lawmakers inspired heated debate after they hosted a “Congress, Cognac and Cigars” event in Atlanta intended to build support among Black voters in Georgia. In elections past, there’s a long-documented history of using alcohol and social functions to persuade voters on either side of the spectrum.

Both parties will almost certainly host competing events in months to come. As November looms closer and closer, spirited gatherings have the unexpected potential to become battlegrounds for the upcoming presidential election.

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