With Republicans reeling from the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, Minnesota delegates in Milwaukee see the Republican National Convention as an event that will unify the party around Trump.
“I think this is only going to unite our country and unite the Republican Party behind President Trump even stronger and solidifies his win in November,” said Emily Novotny Chance, national committeewoman of the Minnesota Young Republicans and one of the state’s 39 delegates to the RNC.
Minnesota’s delegation includes three from each congressional district and 12 elected at large at the party’s state convention, along with state GOP Party Chair David Hann and a national committeeman and committeewoman.
Two-thirds of Minnesota’s delegates are tied to former President Donald Trump and one-third tied to Nikki Haley, who announced last week that she’s releasing her delegates so that they can back Trump.
Here’s what some of the Minnesota delegates said ahead of the convention:
Kelly Fenton
The former state legislator from Woodbury, who serves on the RNC’s rules committee, was in Milwaukee ahead of other Minnesota delegates when the assassination attempt occurred.
“What happened yesterday will make sure that every single Trump supporter gets out and votes,” Fenton said Sunday.
Fenton attended the RNC in 2012 as a delegate for GOP Sen. Mitt Romney. She’s a Haley delegate for the Fourth Congressional District and supported Haley before the former South Carolina governor dropped out of the race. But now that Haley has released her delegates, Fenton plans to get behind Trump.