Hawaii’s delegates to the Republican National Convention have gathered in Cleveland this week to help adopt a sharply conservative new party platform and to join what they expect will be a grand celebration of the presidential nomination of Donald Trump.
Although there have been concerns about security in and around the convention itself, several of the Hawaii delegates say they are confident the federal and local authorities will be able to maintain order and keep the delegates and any protesters safe.
Hawaii is sending 19 delegates and 19 alternates to the convention, which is expected to attract about 50,000 spectators, delegates, family members and demonstrators to the Cleveland area. That includes about 2,470 delegates, 2,302 alternates and an estimated 15,000 credentialed media members, according to party officials.
An elated Nathan Paikai, chairman of the Hawaii delegation and a leader of the Trump campaign in Hawaii, said he already is having “the time of my life,” adding, “The city is beautiful, the setting is beautiful, the people have a lot of aloha.”
Paikai was a member of the Committee on Rules and Order of Business that met in Cleveland last week to put to rest the controversial idea of “unbinding” delegates for a contested convention in an attempt to replace Trump as the nominee.
“It was all shut down, never to come back,” Paikai said. “It was brought up, it was challenged, it was set down, never to be called back again, and that unbinding, and all that ‘Never Trump’ has died.”
Paikai said he was overwhelmed by the way U.S. House Speaker and convention Chairman Paul Ryan and Trump “humbled themselves to each other, knowing that we have to do it together.”
“We didn’t all agree, but we all agreed we have to come together and we have to unite and we have to fight together,” he said.
When U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas speaks to the convention tonight, “the world will know that we are one, for he will come in and he will share,” Paikai said. “It will silence the fight. It will be done.”
Willes Lee, a delegate from Hawaii who is leading the Cruz delegates from Hawaii, agreed that because the convention won’t be contested, the events this week will be “relatively pro forma.”
“There is no issue anymore with Cruz as a candidate, or him mounting some kind of effort. Ted Cruz clearly understands Donald Trump is the nominee, and that’s done,” Lee said.
Lee, who is also president of a conservative organization called the National Federation of Republican Assemblies, has been in Cleveland for more than a week, watching party officials reshape the national Republican platform and hammer out modifications to the party rules.
The Republican Assemblies organization is “very interested in ensuring we had a conservative platform that represented constitutional conservative positions, and we’re satisfied with the national platform,” Lee said.
In particular, the Republican Assemblies wanted an emphasis on marriage as a union between a man and a woman, and wanted strong language in opposition to abortion, he said.
Conservatives also successfully inserted language into the platform expressing disapproval of homosexuality and transgender rights, issues that more moderate delegates are expected to challenge during the convention debates.
Lee said the outcome of the platform bargaining might help make the rest of the convention run more smoothly this week.
“There are a lot of strong conservatives who are not necessarily satisfied with Donald Trump,” Lee said. “One of the issues they’re faced with is they don’t have an alternative, so some of what we did this week may calm them down because their group had a great say at the meetings this week for the platforms and for the rules.”
Paikai said the national platform draft was labeled as “far right,” but he maintains “it was for the people,” adding, “It was for the goodness of the people of America.”
Lee is a member of the National Rifle Association’s Military and Veterans Affairs Committee, and he joined members of the NRA staff and board members in Cleveland as they monitored the GOP platform discussions to ensure the party maintains its strong support for Second Amendment guarantees of the right to own firearms.
“Every group is different, and we wanted to ensure that nobody diluted that,” Lee said. “The resulting platform, which will be approved on Monday, is still a very strong support of that position on Second Amendment and gun civil rights, so we’re satisfied with that.”
Hawaii delegate Peter Di Rocco said he is “very much” concerned about the threat of violence at the convention and the safety of the delegates, observers and protesters, based on media reports.
Di Rocco said he is confident the federal authorities have a good handle on crowd control and will minimize disruptions, but he is less sure about the local authorities.
“After all, if I’m not mistaken, Cleveland is a Democrat town,” he said. “I’m not sure there will be a lot of love for Republicans.”
Lee said security was being increased throughout last week, and he predicted a basically orderly convention. “I don’t anticipate any issue that the security can’t handle,” he said.
The Hawaii group includes many first-time delegates, and for those who are worried about security or the possibility of violence in the week ahead, Lee said he reminds them of the unsettled Republican convention in New York in 2004.
The memory of the World Trade Center attacks was still raw that year, and the United States was engaged in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, “and a lot of people didn’t like that, and we were completely safe,” Lee said.
“I anticipate that the Secret Service and the Cleveland police will have complete control on this to allow the visitors and protesters on both sides to interact in a peaceful manner,” he said.
