It’s been over a month since the Republican National Convention took over downtown Milwaukee.
Mayor Cavalier Johnson was a key player in bringing the four-day convention to the city. He said it would have positive economic benefits and put Milwaukee in a national spotlight.
But was it all worth it?
Columbus, Ohio police officers who were in town for the RNC shot and killed a Milwaukee man, who was armed with two knives, about a mile away from the convention.
And despite high expectations, business was a boom for some and a bust for others.
Lake Effect’s Xcaret Nuñez sat down with Mayor Johnson to reflect on hosting the RNC and share how he’ll be involved in this week’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Looking back on everything that happened, how do you feel the RNC went?
I feel that the RNC went very, very well for Milwaukee. My desire in pitching Milwaukee for the RNC, working with our partners at VISIT Milwaukee, the county executive, private businesses, to bring the RNC here to Milwaukee, was all about elevating the city. It was about further putting Milwaukee on the map and shining a brighter light on the city. I don't want Milwaukee to continue to be the best-kept secret around, I want people to discover the city. And by all accounts — from people who came here, many folks who never even came to, not just Milwaukee, but the state of Wisconsin period — but had a remarkable time here during that week, and have said that they are looking to come back. I ran into somebody just on Thursday, last week, and they told me that the convention in Milwaukee was their eighth and it was the very best convention that they'd ever gone to. So we elevated the city. Images of Milwaukee were beamed into living rooms and C-suites all around the country and around the world, and that's a good thing for Milwaukee.
So with the RNC coming to town, a lot of people were concerned about safety. On the second day of the RNC on July 16, officers from Columbus, Ohio shot and killed Samuel Sharpe Jr. near 17th and Vliet. A month later, what is your response to that shooting? Has your opinion on it changed since you first found out about it?
No, my opinion hasn't changed on the shooting. I mean, first of all, you never want something like that to happen, especially if you're hosting a large-scale event where the eyes of the country and the eyes of the world are fixated on your city. So I certainly didn't want that. I know that, you know, folks in the neighborhood, Mr. Sharpe’s family wouldn't have wanted that either. And so you always have condolences when somebody loses their life.
But at the same time too, when I've talked to officers, officers who are here and even local officers too, when there's an individual who is disobeying officer commands to drop weapons, and you know, Mr. Sharpe, unfortunately, was wielding not one knife, but two knives, and was thrusting towards an unarmed man in a threatening manner. Any officer would have engaged the way that they did in order to protect and preserve the life of, in this case, the unarmed individual. So I'm saddened by Mr. Sharpe’s death, but when the police body cam footage was released and you saw, again, the multiple commands by officers to drop the weapons, and that wasn't obeyed, and then there was a thrusting towards, you know, the unarmed gentleman. From what I understand from folks that review these things, it was a clean shot and justified as well.
Before the RNC, it was said that out-of-state officers within the security perimeter so Milwaukee police would still be the ones serving their community. But why were out-of-state officers patrolling Milwaukee neighborhoods and not the security perimeter?
Sure. So the outside officers, the Columbus officers, in this case, the day before, there was a protest in that area. So they, at that time, I believe, were with Milwaukee police officers. They were in that area that day, simply debriefing, simply meeting, so they were not there in a patrolling, front-facing sort of manner. It just so happened to be that officers heard this commotion that was going on. One of the officers then noticed that there were weapons that were involved — and being a law enforcement officer, and looking to preserve life — engaged and tried to get those weapons to be dropped, so that nobody would have been injured or worse in that situation. And that's where, what I just described happened, where the escalation of things happened. So it was not that they were there and without Milwaukee police in a patrolling front-facing, sort of role. They were simply there, debriefing in reflection of the protests that happened the other day, perhaps preparing for any other protests that might come that day or other days during the convention, and then just happened to witness and then intervened in the situation.
Local leaders and organizers were concerned about the city hosting the RNC for reasons like this — bringing in non-local law enforcement to the city. Have you spoken to organizers about these concerns or addressed them in any way?
Well, look again, as I mentioned, when I've had conversations with folks in law enforcement, whether they were outside officers, including Milwaukee police officers, they have said that they all would have engaged in the exact same way to preserve life. So, I mean, can I understand what the concerns are from some of those folks? Yeah, I can. But when I talk to local officers from the Milwaukee Police Department, the ones who, you know, they would have preferred to be there in a patrolling, front-facing way, which, I mean, there just didn't happen to be a local police officer at that space at that time. But if there was, you very likely would have seen the very same outcome. And because there was no local officer right there, the unarmed man likely would have suffered severe injury or possibly even death, which I think also would have been unacceptable to, you know, those folks who are complaining, or have issue rather, about Mr. Sharpe and complaining about the presence of the outside officers who were on scene.
So, do you think if Milwaukee does host a large-scale event like this again in the future, would public safety be handled differently?
Well, I mean, if you host a large-scale political convention like that — yeah, I mean, there's always space that you can learn from. I mean, I think there's space that we have learned from with the RNC. I think that other large-scale gatherings, and we've had them since the RNC has been over, mind you, right? Harley Davidson was here for their annual event. Northwestern Mutual was here for their annual event. These are tens of thousands of people who have descended upon Milwaukee, and even before the RNC, I mean, Bastille Days. You know, the other large-scale festivals, whether it's Summerfest or whether it's the State Fair, for the portion that is certainly in the City of Milwaukee.
So we've had other large-scale events since [the RNC], and I think that law enforcement in all those cases, does a really, really good job. But the other thing you got to consider here too, again is — yes, these were outside officers. If they were there and they had done nothing and this other gentleman, the unarmed gentleman, was killed, just imagine what the criticism of those officers would have been then — that they did not intervene.
So yes, there's always space that you can learn from when an incident like this happens. When we host other large-scale events — and I intend to host other large-scale events in the city to further put a spotlight on Milwaukee and shine the bright light on this wonderful city that we have — it's unlikely that you'll see that sort of security footprint, that sort of security apparatus, because we wouldn't be hosting somebody, a principal at a convention like that, that if he, in this case, were to be successful in his election, would be the president of the United States of America, the most powerful person on the face of planet Earth. So it's unlikely that you'd see that with hosting. I don't know. I'm just going to pull something out of the air — an NBA draft or an IndyCar or a Major League Baseball All-Star game or what have you.
I want to shift gears. In the months leading up to the convention, there was an expectation that there would be a big boost for businesses downtown. But when we spoke to some businesses in and around the perimeter, that didn't seem to be the case for them. Did the RNC have the economic impact you expected?
Well, that's a great question, too. So again, I think there's space for us to learn. I'll be the first one to tell you that I think there are opportunities to learn. And this was our first time hosting something like this. This is the biggest hosting job that the city has ever done. And as I said before, if the principal at the convention were to be successful in his political efforts, would become president of the United States, the most powerful person on earth. This is the biggest thing that we've ever done, and it's the first time we've ever had a security apparatus, a security footprint, the likes that we saw during the Republican National Convention.
So yeah, there's opportunities for us to learn. I know that a number of the businesses near the convention site didn't fare as well as they thought that they might or wanted to. And quite frankly, I wanted them to do better too. However, there were a number of local businesses, Milwaukee businesses, Wisconsin businesses, that were at the Convention Fest right inside the security perimeter, that did very, very well.
There were businesses on MLK Drive that did very, very well as well. There were other businesses that did pretty well too. We don't have all the numbers, because those numbers are being crunched by our visitors and convention bureau, VISIT Milwaukee and others. But when you look at the hotel spend from that week in 2023 versus the week of the RNC in 2024 — in 2023 hotel spend that week was $5 million, and hotel spend during the week of 2024 to the RNC was $19 million. So there's pretty significant expenditure there. We'll see how it shakes out with the rest of the economy. I'm hoping that the numbers are really good, but, yeah, there's opportunities for us to learn from anything that we do.
So at the end of the day, do you feel it was worth it to host the RNC in Milwaukee?
I mean, so my goal here is to have the opportunity to put Milwaukee further up on the list. I want Milwaukee to be a city that's recognized as one of these great emerging, middle-tier and growing American cities. You can't do that unless people pay attention to you. The RNC certainly got a lot of people across the country, and around the world, talking about Milwaukee, putting boots on the ground in Milwaukee and in Wisconsin, quite frankly, for the very first time. There were images of this city being beamed into living rooms and into C-suites all across the country and all across the world. I had the opportunity to speak to a lot of press — local press, Wisconsin Press, national press, international press — that were all here in Milwaukee.
So, yeah, I think that this was a very good thing in shining a brighter light on Milwaukee, because we have to compete. We have to compete for business investment, we have to compete for talent. We have to make our case if we want our city to grow and be a prosperous place. I mean, if you think about what's happening in our region in the Midwest — Minneapolis continues to rise. Detroit is having this amazing comeback. Cleveland is doing all the stuff that it's doing. Indianapolis is rising. Chicago is basically the capital of the Midwest. Like, I want Milwaukee to rise too. I don't want Milwaukee to be on the back end of that and fall, and so we have to be able to compete with these places. And I think the RNC put us in a strong position to continue to compete for these other large-scale events, to attract that talent and attract good jobs and create, by virtue of these large events coming here, a virtuous economic cycle for the people who live, work and own businesses in Milwaukee.
So, moving on to talk about the DNC. You are one of 95 Wisconsin delegates attending the convention in Chicago. How did you become a delegate, and why did you want to do it?
Well, I don't think that I did anything special to become a delegate, other than be elected mayor of the City of Milwaukee. I think just by dent of my position, being mayor of a big city in America, and a Democrat, you get the opportunity to go and attend the convention. But be that as it may, whether I was mayor or not, I still would want to attend the Democratic National Convention. I always have wanted to. This will be my very first convention that I've had the opportunity to attend, and a really historical one at that, right? I mean, just think about the historic candidacy that Kamala Harris has, along with Governor Walz. Only the second woman ever to win the nomination of a major American political party — the first, of course, being Secretary Hillary Clinton, who I proudly supported in 2016. [Kamala Harris is also] the first Black woman to have the opportunity to not just clinch a nomination, but I think will go on to be the 47th president of the United States. That's really remarkable. And I'll do all the things that delegates do, but chief among them is making sure that we offer the Wisconsin delegation and the Democratic National Convention’s support for Kamala Harris to continue on as our nominee for president leading up to the election on November 5.
The prominent role of delegates is voting for the party’s presidential candidate. But that already happened earlier this month on a virtual roll call. What do you do now? What part do you play at the DNC?
I mean, that was official. So what we'll do will be symbolic, but I still think that it's important to show the unity that's within our party, to show the unity in the Democratic Party for Vice President Kamala Harris, for Governor Walz as they proceed to go on beyond the convention and go into the election season, and ultimately, I believe, win the election as well. And I think it's still important to have that stage to show the contrast between what Democrats believe and what Democrats want to accomplish in the United States, versus what Republicans want to accomplish in the United States. I mean, I know the [Republican National Convention] was here in Milwaukee, but I'm excited about supporting the person who walks across the stage in Chicago, not the one who walked across the stage here in Milwaukee. That’s because Democrats understand the power and the importance of diversity in this country, they understand that when we make investments in people, that's how we get the best out of this country. We want people to be productive, contributing members to society, and by making smart and early investments in folks, that's how you get there. Whereas, Republicans have been focused on chaos and division for nearly 10 years that Donald Trump has been at the top of that party. So you'll see that contrast being laid out. Democrats have a big tent welcoming every person in America, regardless of who you are, where you live, what you look like, who you love. And Republicans are trying to create division between Americans and that's not the path that Americans want to go down. Americans want to be unified. They want joy back, right? They want unity back, not chaos and division like we see from the Republicans.
So at past conventions, delegates have voted on resolutions and platform initiatives. What initiatives are you advocating for at the DNC?
Yeah, you know, for us at the Democratic National Convention, and things we want to see in Milwaukee, what we want folks to have access to is good-paying, family-supporting jobs, right? Milwaukee, once upon a time was known as the machine shop of the world, right, where we made things. We still make a lot of things here, but I think there's a tremendous opportunity for us to make more things as we transform our economy into an economy where folks can have one good job, and usually a good union job in order to pay their bills. Because, when folks have access to good jobs … not even just jobs, but good careers. That's good, not just for them, it's good for their family, right? It's good for their kids. It presents them with an opportunity to purchase their own homes and stay in their homes, so they're not transient, and the neighborhoods are not porous. And when you get a critical mass of that happening, and folks are not transient, and the neighborhoods aren’t porous, that's how you start to tighten up the fabric of the neighborhoods, right? And people start looking out for each other, and the relationships become familial. And when that happens, that's when neighborhoods gel, they become cohesive, and that's how you get to the greater public safety that all of us want to see. That's what Democrats understand. And that's one of many things that I think Democrats will be rallying around in their resolution positions at the convention.
