I attended the 2024 RNC as a religion correspondent and producer for WORT 89.9 FM, Riverwest Radio, and WBAI New York. It’s hard to communicate the totality of the experience, so here are some small impressions.
An activist outside a community event clandestinely hands me a condom that says “Protect Your Fucking Freedoms.”
A hotel worker I meet at a bus stop tells me that law enforcement staying at their hotel eat a lot of salad.
An unhoused man yells to passersby outside the hard perimeter that he’s going to build a wall around the Great Lakes to keep people from taking his water.
A bus driver tells me that most people have been understanding of the detours in the downtown area. There are always rude passengers; she can deal with them this week like she does every week.
Beside a pastel pink bus chartered by Women for America blasts the 2001 Hillsong hit, “Worthy is the Lamb.”
Two cops monitoring a street corner near the Milwaukee River compare notes on how they’re cutting out nitrates and nitrites from their diets.
A worker at the 3rd Street Market asks me if I like being a reporter.
Propaganda posters passed out to RNC attendees lay discarded across the Fiserv Forum floor.
All photos are my own.
Sara Gabler 