RNC 2024; Ripon, birthplace of GOP, highlights party history
RIPON, Wis. - Milwaukee may be the host of the 2024 Republican National Convention, but none of this is happening without Ripon 1854.
170 years ago, as an expanding America wrestled with slavery, the Republican Party was born in Fond du Lac County.
Having already traveled more than 2,000 miles from Oregon to Milwaukee, the 86 miles to Ripon was a chip shot for convention delegates Jessica Davidson and Kevin Moss.
"It was an absolute 'have to see' for us. Why? Because it's the birthplace of our party and I wanted to learn more of the history," Davidson said.
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"Seeing what Abraham Lincoln and what they've created here, it's just so peaceful and calm to feel this, being here," Moss said.
They won’t be the only people taking a field trip to see the building where the Republican Party started 170 years ago.
"Sometimes when people walk in, they freeze a little bit, and they just try to imagine what it was like," Ripon Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Mandy Kimes said.
The one-time school house, one-time private residence is the actual structure where it all started for the Republican Party, although the building itself has been moved six times around Ripon.
On a cold March night in 1854, free-soilers, whigs and even Democrats gathered to make a plan.
"The father of the Republican Party, Alvin Bovay, had been patiently waiting for the right moment," Kimes said. "He knew the time would come that something would be demanded of the party [...] and someone would say enough is enough, and we have to do something different."
Melded together by their opposition to slavery, they chose the name "Republican Party." Two years later, California's John Fremont would be the party's first Republican presidential candidate.
He lost, but 19 Republicans since have made it to the White House.
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For those who won't make the trip, the Chamber of Commerce brought a replica to the RNC. It will be on display throughout the convention.
For those who want to, the free museum is open longer next week.
Kimes stressed it is not an exclusive club.
"A nonpartisan historic museum, we welcome everybody and sometimes people are dragged here by their friends and they say, ‘I can’t be seen inside a Republican museum.’ And once they learn the history, honestly they feel really proud, and they feel this is a place for everyone," Kimes said.