Minnesota Republican chair likes Trump’s VP pick of Vance, stresses need to rally younger voters

Immigration and public safety are the focus for the GOP — including Minnesota’s 39 delegates — on day two of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

Minnesota Republican Party Chair David Hann joined MPR News host Cathy Wurzer on Morning Edition early Tuesday, reflecting on an eventful first 24 hours in Wisconsin and looking forward to what the RNC’s outcomes could mean for his constituents.

Glimpsing Donald Trump after assassination attempt

On Monday, delegates approved the party’s platform, affirmed former president Donald Trump as the official nominee and met newly minted vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance of Ohio.

Trump made a rousing entrance Monday after surviving an assassination attempt two days earlier. He had a bandage covering his ear, which was grazed by a bullet during the attack in Pennsylvania. While Trump didn’t speak and appeared only briefly, Hann said the Minnesota delegation was “happy to see him and happy to see that he is recovering well.”

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Selection of JD Vance for vice president running mate

Upon Trump’s announcement of a running mate, Minnesota DFL Party Chair Ken Martin called Vance “an election denier who opposes abortion” and a “terrible fit for Minnesota.”

In an interview with MPR News, Martin said that Vance holds more conservative policy views than Trump in many areas and was likely selected “because Vance will do what [former Vice President] Mike Pence wouldn’t do on Jan. 6, I think he would bend over backwards to enable Trump and his extreme MAGA agenda, even at the cost of our democracy.”

Vance himself was long anti-Trump. “For his past strong dislike of the president, what does Senator Vance add to the ticket?” Wurzer asked of Hann, who called the senator “his own person” and an “interesting individual.”

Hann said the Minnesota Republican Party tried to have Vance speak at a dinner event. While it didn’t work out, there was interest in hearing from the 39-year-old Marine veteran venture capitalist turned author turned politician — who could soon begin a new chapter as the youngest vice president since Richard Nixon.

“He’s sort of the next generation of political leadership and certainly has a voice that many young people relate to very well. So I think it was a good choice on the part of [former] President Trump to try to make a connection with that next generation,” Hann told Wurzer.

Purple state appeal

In the social media post announcing his running mate, Trump said Vance “will be strongly focused on the people he fought so brilliantly for, the American workers and farmers in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota and far beyond.” Hann believes Vance’s apparent ability to connect with younger votes could tip divided purple states in Republicans’ favor.

“Republicans need to, I think, broaden our appeal,” Hann said. “This is not the same party that we saw when Ronald Reagan was president, things have changed. Those young people at that point are now my generation. And so I think JD Vance has got the ability to connect with that younger demographic, and I heard that speaking to many of the delegates on the floor.”

Martin said he didn’t think Vance would pick up support among younger voters because of his positions on abortion and LGBTQ+ issues.

“Minnesota is a progressive state. Even the Republicans here are a little bit more left of right than where most Republicans are around the country,” he said. “I can’t imagine that JD Vance has any appeal to them outside of his age, which I don’t believe young people necessarily care about.”

2024 RNC policy platform and abortion rights

Delegates adopted a revised policy platform on Monday, including few mentions of abortion, which is notable given the party’s consistent efforts to restrict or outlaw the procedure. The national party essentially opted to leave abortion policy up to states and dropping the demand for a federal ban — upsetting some social conservatives. It’s also the first new platform since the Supreme Court overturned the federal protections under the Roe v. Wade precedent.

Hann says it “recognizes that human life, that all life, has value and deserves to be protected. I think the platform reflects the reality that, number one, the Roe v. Wade decision was very wrongly decided … This is a political issue that needs to be resolved the way we resolve all political issues: by debate and votes and decisions on the part of individual legislatures across the country. And we’ve seen a lot of that has been happening.”

Majority Whip Emmer set to speak

Congressman Tom Emmer, U.S. House majority whip from Minnesota, is set to speak Tuesday evening. While Hann wasn’t sure what Emmer would say, he expected the House’s third-highest-ranking Republican to “be his usual energetic self.”

Hann acknowledged a “little bit of a falling out” between Trump and Emmer, referring to the lawmaker’s brief run for House speaker.

“People have differences and oftentimes they find ways to mend those differences,” Hann said. “So I expected he [will give] a strong speech energetic speech, as he typically does.”