After former President Donald Trump narrowly survived an assassination attempt at his Butler, Pennsylvania rally Saturday, angst surrounded this week’s Republican National Convention.
But that feeling amongst Republican voters and delegates at the Milwaukee convention was quelled in the following days, leading up to President Trump’s first public appearance since the attempt Monday – donning a bandage on his injured right ear – to the tune of a live performance from Lee Greenwood of his hit song “God Bless the USA.”
Delaware Republican Party Chair Julianne Murray was in Milwaukee watching the campaign rally on her phone Saturday and was in the building when President Trump made his entrance Monday.
“It was just a relief when he stood up and did that fist pump. I think he, even in that super terrifying moment, knew we needed to see that he was OK,” Ms. Murray told the Daily State News.
“It already is an iconic picture and it defines him. It defines this election; he is very strong and resilient, and I know that we at the RNC have been talking about how he is strong and resilient just like America is strong and resilient.”
Ms. Murray has been in Milwaukee for the last week, as she is a co-chair of the Republican National Convention’s rules committee and a standing member of the event’s platform committee. After several long days of work, she was on stage Monday to deliver committee reports to convention attendees.
“My goal when I ran for party chair was that I wanted the Delaware Republican Party to become visible and vocal. Our delegation, we have young Republicans here, they’ve been on the Jumbotron, they’ve been in pictures,” she said. “The presence of Delaware, little mighty Delaware, has been great this week.”
At President Trump’s May 11 rally in Wildwood, New Jersey – which was attended by nearly 100,000 supporters – the former commander-in-chief even gave Ms. Murray a shoutout for her commitment to making Delaware a red state this election season.
One of the biggest questions surrounding this week’s Republican National Convention was who the former president would select as his running mate for vice president.
There were several prospective candidates discussed such as Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and South Carolina U.S. Sen. Tim Scott. But President Trump landed on Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance.
The Delaware GOP chair said that, back in 2015, she felt President Trump selected former Vice President Mike Pence as his running mate because he contrasted the candidate’s boisterous personality.
This time, she feels U.S. Sen. Vance is similar to the former president in that way and this could offer the opportunity to mentor the senator into being a future presidential candidate himself.
“I like J.D. Vance. He embodies the American dream in terms of coming through adversity,” Ms. Murray said, referencing his 2016 memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy”. “To go from that, to become a Marine, serve, go to Yale Law School, become a senator and to ascend to candidate for vice president. He’s 39 years old. It’s tremendous and it’s so different.”
Following Saturday’s assassination attempt, President Trump said he rewrote his keynote convention speech to give it a more “unifying” tone.
Ms. Murray said that is in line with the tenor of this week’s convention, which carries the theme of making America wealthy, safe, strong and “great once again.”
“He has an opportunity here and President Trump is known for maximizing opportunity,” Ms. Murray said. “It was important to have this conversation about how we have business here to save this country. Everything is on the line, and we need to come out of this convention all on the same page and all moving in the direction of getting President Trump elected.”
Ms. Murray is hopeful the newfound spotlight for Delaware’s Republican Party can help elect GOP candidates into statewide, General Assembly, local and county offices this fall.
Delaware’s primary election will take place Sept. 10 with the general and presidential elections set for Nov. 5.
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