Trump’s forward-looking speech marks the climax and conclusion of a massive four-day Republican pep rally that drew thousands of conservative activists and elected officials to swing-state Wisconsin as voters weigh an election that currently features two deeply unpopular candidates. 

With time racing toward the party convention next month, Democratic unease is growing at the White House and within the campaign at a fraught moment for the president and his party.

“Dysfunction has seeped into their party,” U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood said. “I think their convention is going to be much different than this convention, in terms of the unity of what we’ve seen here. The chaos, the dysfunction and what’s going to happen in Chicago, I think could be really, really problematic.”

U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood called on Illinois Republicans to get out the vote for congressional candidates hoping to increase the state’s GOP representation from the current three seats they currently occupy.

Republican nominee former President Donald Trump has said he will only accept the results of the Nov. 5 general election if “everything is honest.”

The board this week disclosed that the remainder of its 2024 meetings will be moved to other locations after the regular board room sustained water damage when a pipe burst at a nearby business just before the board’s June meeting.

If it appeared in a movie, sports game or meme, chances are it’s been made into a bobblehead. And if it’s a bobblehead, it’s likely exhibited on one of the dozens of wooden bookshelves inside the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum.

WTTW News reporters are spread out across Milwaukee covering the 2024 Republican National Convention and the Illinois delegation. The third day of the convention will feature a speech by vice presidential nominee Sen. J.D. Vance. 

The 39-year-old Ohio senator is a relative political unknown. In his first primetime speech since becoming the nominee for vice president, Vance spoke of growing up poor in Kentucky and Ohio, his mother addicted to drugs and his father absent, and how he later joined the military and went on to the highest levels of U.S. politics.

President Joe Biden, 81, tested positive following his first event in Las Vegas, where he was expected to later speak at the UnidosUS annual conference. 

“We will adhere to the Republican platform, we are a party of the people and freedom,” Illinois Republican Party Chair Kathy Salvi said, declining to say whether she personally supports a national abortion ban. 

U.S. Rep. Mary Miller (R-Illinois) said excessive regulations are hurting agriculture, blaming the so-called “communist environmental movement, the ‘Green Bad Deal’ that Donald Trump has called out as a sham issue. And I want to tell you as a farmer, we love CO2 – and trees and plants love it too. They have demonized the miracle molecule that causes things to grow.”

“Well, I'll tell you your blue funk is over,” newly elected chair of the Illinois Republican Party Kathy Salvi said. “We're going to make Illinois red again.”

WTTW News examined some of the claims made during the second day of the RNC, looked at criminal justice research and spoke to an expert about how research supports — or doesn’t — the campaign rhetoric.

WTTW News reporters are spread out across Milwaukee covering the 2024 Republican National Convention and Illinois’ delegation. Check back throughout the day for continuous updates.

“The Republican party isn’t a scary place for Black folks,” said Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin to a gathering under the auspices of the Black Republican Mayor’s Association, an organization he founded and chairs.