Wisconsin
Wisconsin’s ‘24 RNC delegation to stay in Milwaukee hotel after originally being slated for Racine digs
If you’re not willing to pay Pfister prices, you’re not going to get a Pfister-quality hotel.
And that, GOP sources say, is why the Wisconsin delegation to the Republican National Convention almost ended up staying in Racine.
The state party confirmed to WisPolitics that Wisconsin delegates are now slated to stay in the just-reopened Hampton Inn & Suites in downtown Milwaukee for the July 15-18 convention. The party was otherwise mum on how the delegation ended up there.
But multiple GOP sources told WisPolitics the hotel odyssey was a result of what the Wisconsin delegation was willing to pay for its hotel.
According to the sources:
*The RNC assigns hotels to delegations by a price structure. Every delegation is asked what it is willing to pay for its rooms, which are covered by the delegates themselves, and then states are slotted accordingly. None of the top hotels in downtown Milwaukee were going for less than $550 a night, and the Wisconsin delegation’s original price point was well below that.
*There aren’t enough hotels in Milwaukee to host all the delegates, media and others who will be in Milwaukee for the convention, as well as the national committee meetings the week before. That resulted in the RNC slating Wisconsin to stay in Racine before someone objected to the optics of the home-state delegation staying outside the host city.
*The next step was the Hampton Inn, which has faced financial troubles over the past five years. It closed last year and was transferred to its lender last year in lieu of foreclosure, but recently opened again. The Wisconsin delegation will be there for the convention, about six blocks away from the Fiserv Forum.
Follow convention-related news at Convention Corridor.