Red in a Blue State examines the backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives of Massachusetts attendees and others at the 2024 RNC in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The third day had the theme "Make America Strong Once Again."
Maria Pickard, guest from St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, and her daughter, Giovanna
"This is my first RNC experience. This is why I'm here, and I'm so excited. And it's been so great to share and speak with other fellow Republicans that share the same views and beliefs that we have, and it's just been amazing.
"We have a lot of high prices as far as like our groceries. Most of our food is imported. About 97, 98% of our food is imported onto the island. So I feel like they pass on those charges onto us, you know, like the shipping of the products to the island. So we do feel it when we go to the grocery store. So you can just one bag of groceries is about $100.
"Our economy was great when Donald Trump was in the White House. And I feel that he's going to bring us back to ... where we need to be, where we were. Our gas prices going down, inflation going down, our rates going down. So I think he's going to do it again, if not even better than he did the first time."
Tom Hodgson, delegate from Dartmouth, Massachusetts, and chairman of the Massachusetts Trump 2024 campaign
"If you if you care about America, you care about your neighbors, you don't care about them because they're either Republican, Democrats or Independents. You care about them because they share the same problems and concerns that you do and the hopes. And so therefore, the only way that we can make sure that we're going to get those back is for people like me and others to invest our time, come here and be a representative and support the president of the United States, our future president of United States, so he can start to do work again and bring back America and make it great again.
"Look, three quarters of my brothers and sisters of the 13 of us are Democrats, some very liberal. And we don't agree on a number of issues. Sometimes we'll compromise, but sometimes we can't get to an agreement. Sometimes those discussions can be, you know, a little heated and emotional. But in the end, I don't hate my brothers and sisters, they're my family. And that's the way it needs to be in America. It's the way it used to be in America where you could respect some of the other point of view. Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill did it. They would argue vociferously over issues during the day, and at night they'd go grab a scotch and play cards, and that was the way it should be. And so we have to remember that we're Americans first. It isn't about red and blue. It's supposed to be about red, white and blue.
"My message would be that we are at a time in history where we know that our country is hurting. We know our families are hurting, we know that we're not moving in the right direction. We are the ones that have the opportunity. We can't keep complaining and looking and pointing at the gas pump, seeing our reflection in the glass and just saying, this is ridiculous. I'm paying for four or five bucks a gallon and yadda yadda yadda. Because you know what? You have to finally admit to yourself that that reflection, that the complaining you're doing, the reflection you're seeing in there, is is the solution to your to your problem. You need to get out and vote and you need to take back government."
Eric Olsen, delegate from Billings, Montana
"I'm passionate about the future of this country. I'm a conservative Christian, father, grandfather. I'm worried about the future for my kids, so I just keep basically pushing Republicans to keep them going down the right path. So and that's why I'm here, to keep them corralled, if you will.
"Since 2008, when Obama said, 'I'm going to fundamentally change America.' And that was it. It woke all those people up there working hard, and our parents went to World War II. I mean, we were patriots to to the end because of World War II. We thought we saved the world, and now look at the mess we're in. So I said, no, no, no.
"We live in a state that's got people working three jobs. It seems like politicians forget about the working class. So it's always been my task to try to tell them about the working class so they can work one job that helps your families so they can take care of families better. If they're working three jobs, a lot of families just have a struggle to keep their kids going down the right path. So we got to get the economy better prosperity back.
"Let's fix this country. Let's get back to the republic. Democracy is a dangerous word because that means one person['s] vote over 50%, then you can rule over 49%. And [the] founders never meant that to happen. So get rid of democracy. We don't want that. We want our republic back."