This year's Republican National Convention wrapped up in Milwaukee last week, marking one act in what has become one of the wildest months in recent U.S. political history.
Paul Dame chairs Vermont's GOP and led the delegation last week in Wisconsin. He joined Vermont Public's Jenn Jarecki to talk about the convention and the state of the presidential election at large. This interview was produced for the ear. We highly recommend listening to the audio. We’ve also provided a transcript below, which has been edited for length and clarity.
Jenn Jarecki: I want to start with the most recent news that President Biden ended his campaign for reelection. How are Vermont Republicans feeling about this late-in-the-game change, and how do you think it impacts the presidential election moving forward?
Paul Dame: Yeah, I think that it's been good to see the Democrats sort of catch up to where Republicans have been probably six, nine months ago, feeling like there were some definite concerns and issues with President Biden that really didn't become manifest until the debate. You know, I actually issued a very rare press release, where I'm agreeing with Sen. Peter Welch, that it probably made sense for President Biden to step down.
It would have been better if he had done that probably earlier in the process. I think one of the downsides of doing this so late is a lot of Democrat voters don't get the opportunity to weigh in in the primary process the way that Republicans did this year.
Jenn Jarecki: I noticed that about the press release you put out recently, and it's sort of focused on the Democratic voter. I wonder, what are you hearing from Republican voters about this change at the top of the ticket?
Paul Dame: I think Republican voters don't see a significant difference with Vice President Harris, because she's part of the same administration. And Republicans — and this was a theme of the convention — are running very much on affordability, public safety and sort of our position in geopolitics. And I think Vice President Harris has all of the same negatives that President Biden had. But she doesn't have the experience.
Jenn Jarecki: I'd love to move on to the Republican National Convention. Paul, will you briefly describe the scene for us in Milwaukee last week?
Paul Dame: Yeah, it was a very interesting convention. It was the third convention that I've been to. It was certainly the most unifying convention I've been to. I thought it was very telling, the first three days of the convention were very much focused on average, everyday Americans. Instead of filling the primetime slots with well-known politicians, members of Congress, senators, we heard from from regular people. We heard from one mother who lost her 13-year-old son to fentanyl poisoning. And so it was a little rare, but a relief, I'd say, to hear from more regular Americans about what their issues are, and what Republicans are working on doing to address those issues.
More from NPR: The RNC is over. Here are 5 things you need to know.
Jenn Jarecki: In thinking about the RNC's big theme this year — unity — it dominated the discussion in the days following the assassination attempt. And at first, Trump's acceptance speech really seemed to drive at unity, until he fell back into a pattern that looked like what you've described as divisive rhetoric and name calling. You know, you said before the RNC that we could see a new side of Donald Trump during the speech, that he might make more of an effort to appeal to all Americans. Do you think he did that?
Paul Dame: I think that he was trying to do something very new to him for the first time, and was not as successful as he could have been. I think he started out very much identifying, "I want to be the president not for half of America, but for all Americans." But I think that in certain places where he sort of went off the path he had charted for himself, he sort of relapsed into some of the traditional tendencies that we hear from Trump. And the weight and responsibility will be on President Trump moving forward to see, are we going to see the 2016 Trump? Or is this Trump going to continue to move in a direction where he's making a greater and deeper, more authentic effort to unify not just the party, but also the country?
Jenn Jarecki: Paul, you spoke with Vermont Public after Republicans suffered some pretty bad midterm losses in 2022. And you said, "Trump has been a negative factor on the party in Vermont," and that the party needed to move on from him. How do you feel about his candidacy today? And how do you think he'll impact down-ballot races for Vermont Republicans in November?
Paul Dame: Well, he's already had an impact on down ballot races. Part of the difficulty we've had this year in recruiting House members, or candidates for the House, the conversations I've had, people are saying, "Look, I love Gov. Phil Scott, I really believe in the affordability message that Vermont Republicans have. I just don't want to be on the ballot with Trump at the top of the ticket." So I think that's already had an impact there.
What was interesting and sort of unexpected for me is in the 2020 race, we actually picked up seats with Trump on the ballot. So the question will be, does Trump turn out voters that don't normally engage on a local state level that are paying attention to national politics? And then, you know, what's the backlash going to be for individual candidates? I think that's something that remains to be seen.
Jenn Jarecki: Vermont gave former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley her only Republican primary win in March. So what are you hearing on the ground from GOP voters with Trump cemented as the nominee? I know you spoke to that a little bit. But considering that it seems like there's a fair contingent of Republicans here that don't feel represented by the MAGA movement?
Paul Dame: I think that's absolutely right. It seems like there's certainly three groups of those Nikki Haley voters, people who had a strong preference for Nikki Haley, but are going to vote for Trump because they're concerned about the path that the Democratic administration has taken us over the last few years. And they feel that Trump's flaws are worth accepting, given the difficulty that we've been in the last three years.
And then there's people on the exact opposite end — I think Gov. Scott would be in this case — not voting for Trump under any circumstances.
And then I feel like there's a group in the middle who just aren't sure what they think yet. I think a lot of those people were looking towards the convention to see if Trump is going to demonstrate a change and a different approach. And I think for those people, the jury is still out.
Jenn Jarecki: Abortion has been a major issue in the lead-up to November. Trump's running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, has advocated for a national abortion ban, but this week switched positions to support states deciding access — which Trump also says he now supports after shifting on abortion over the years. Paul, will you remind listeners of the Vermont GOP's position on access to abortion and other reproductive health care like birth control pills?
Paul Dame: Yeah, well, it's an issue that is not really addressed strongly in our platform. And the reality is that Republicans have different views on that ranging from you know, where Gov. Phil Scott is, actually getting the endorsement of Planned Parenthood, to having some Republicans who are have some serious questions about whether or not third trimester abortions are appropriate. We don't see that happening in any of the European countries, either. It's not something that we're using as a litmus test when we're recruiting or when we're when we're developing messaging.
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