The second day of the Republican National Convention was just as exciting as the first.  Protests on Tuesday were centered in Public Square with a variety of groups demonstrating.  The majority of the organizations that were protesting were speaking up against Trump, but many also spoke out against police brutality.  A Black Lives Matter related organization began an impromptu march through the streets, causing road closures and blockages.  The law enforcement officers in the area were very professional and kept everyone safe.  The Westboro Baptist Church showed up in the afternoon to demonstrate, but were generally ignored by the public and quickly spoofed by a counter-protest group holding signs that satirized the infamous organization.  However, not all of the demonstrations were peaceful.  In the mid-morning hours, controversial radio host Alex Jones was punched by an unknown individual while walking through the plaza.

Being inside the arena when nothing is happening onstage is just as exciting as when the stage is graced with the likes of Donald Trump, Ben Carson, and Paul Ryan. Although the pomp and circumstance, dramatic speeches, and state-by-state votes occurred in the evening, the Quicken Loans Arena was full of Republicans and action the entire day.

Credentialed guests, delegates, and press also wandered around the entire arena. The press kept busy interviewing and filming as everyone else engaged in conversation and went shopping. As my job is to follow the Illinois delegation, I met with one of the delegates, Brad Schonder, from Addison, IL (in the 8th Congressional district). According to him, the Illinois delegation had not done anything of too much interest in the past few days. Instead of meeting, they had held a celebration at Cleveland’s North Coast Harbor Sunday evening and spent all of Monday on the floor voting.

During the evening session, the convention began with roll call, where each individual state cast its votes to the candidates of their choosing.  After announcing some fun facts about their state, each state speaker would announce to the crowd how many delegates each candidate would be receiving.  Although this took quite a while, everything went according to plan and the Trump children from the state of New York were able to be the ones to allocate the delegates that would get their father the nomination.  With an instrumental version of “New York, New York” playing from the loudspeakers, the crowd celebrated as Trump was officially nominated as the presidential candidate for the Republican Party.  The convention then did a voice vote on Mike Pence and he quickly received the nomination for Vice President.

After the nominations, the speeches of the session began.  Paul Ryan started by giving a rousing speech about the need for conservatism in America and unity within the Republican Party.  Chris Christie spoke as a “prosecutor” and put Hillary Clinton on “trial” for the past eight years.  The Trump children were very well received, with some saying that Donald Trump Jr. should be running for president instead of his father.  Ben Carson was well received and compared Clinton to Lucifer during his speech.  The only person who was not well received was Mitch McConnell who received boos whenever he came up and spoke.

Check back tomorrow for your day three update from the Republican National Convention and follow us on Twitter at @Marxrunner13 and @Garethcordery.