Coronavirus not deterring Hoosier senators from RNC; governor may skip
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Indiana’s two U.S. senators are planning to attend the expected renomination celebration of President Donald Trump at next month’s Republican National Convention in Jacksonville, Florida.
Despite a surging number of coronavirus infections in the Sunshine State, U.S. Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., last week said on Twitter there’s no way he would miss the kickoff of Trump’s campaign to “Keep America Great.”
“I campaigned with President Trump in 2018 — where he helped expand our Senate majority — and touted his policies to Make America Great Again. I’ll be at the GOP convention in Jacksonville,” Braun said.
A spokesman for U.S. Sen. Todd Young, R-Ind., last week confirmed the senior Hoosier senator, whose duties this year include leading the Senate Republican campaign arm, also will be in attendance for the Aug. 24-27 GOP convention.
On the other hand, at least five senators so far are planning to skip the quadrennial confab of Republicans from every U.S. state and territory: Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa; Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah; Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine; Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska; and Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., also hinted he might take a pass on attending a large gathering in a state that’s regularly tallying more than 10,000 new coronavirus cases a day.
McConnell said Thursday hosting a national convention amid a global pandemic is “a challenging situation,” and said he’ll decide in late August whether the convention will be safe enough to attend.
Similarly, Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb — who nominated Mike Pence, his gubernatorial predecessor, for vice president of the United States at the 2016 Republican convention — is taking a wait-and-see approach toward attending this year’s event because of the coronavirus.
“That is the plan. That was the plan. But that’s August, and one thing that I’ve learned throughout this whole process is: Don’t make vacation plans too far off in the distance because things change on the ground,” Holcomb said.
“One week folks feel like they’ve dodged the bullet, and the next week the whole terrain underneath their feet has changed.”
Holcomb said if the Republican convention goes forward as planned, featuring a large Trump rally, the GOP will “have to do it differently than it’s ever been done before,” otherwise he won’t be there.
“I’m not going to find myself in a sea of humanity anytime soon,” Holcomb said. “I would like to go. But, quite frankly, I’ve not booked my flight yet.”
The Democratic National Committee last month scaled back its Aug. 17-20 convention in Milwaukee to minimize attendance and COVID-19 risk for presumptive presidential nominee Joe Biden, party leaders, state delegates and residents of the Wisconsin city.
Indiana not trying to lure Republican convention from North Carolina, governor says
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