From the Convention Floor

Suzanne Amato; alternate delegate (Wood Dale Illinois) with her spouse, Jimmy Amato: “For me, the most important issue is immigration reform. I want a wall. I don’t have health insurance, and I’ve been sick in the past. If someone crosses over and comes here, they can go to the ER and its no problem, and my taxes can pay for that. But I can’t go get what I need, and I’m a citizen. So I’m jealous I guess. I’m jealous and angry.”

Robert B. Arlett; Delaware state chairman for Trump Campaign and chief whip of the Delaware delegation: “Immigration and national security are one and the same. My wife is a legal immigrant [from Vietnam]. She was not born in this country. She came here legally and followed all the laws of the land. Mr. Trump is not against immigration. He’s just against illegal immigration. In this country, you have to earn the right to be a citizen.”

Robert Antonacci; alternate delegate (Onondoga County, New York): and county comptroller “We’re big fans of Donald because he’s from New York. He’s very familiar with our upstate economy and that’s what’s important to me. It’s the economy, economy, economy. Government can either lead, follow, or get out of the way. Seems like most of the time now they’re getting in the way. I think that Donald is going to bring that business acumen to Washington, and he’s going to clean up a lot of our problems.”

Monica Morrill; delegate (12th district, Pennsylvania): “My family has a long history of being in the Republican party. My relative Justin Smith Morrill was part of the first group of Republican congressman to be inducted in 1865. He was asked to help Abraham Lincoln become president. I think the most important issues are foreign policy, our economy, and coming back to the way we used to be … I’m pro-life and unapologetically Christian. And of course our country was founded on those principles. I have two degrees from UC Berkeley in environmental economics.”

Anne Fitzgerald; guest, with sons Patrick, left, and Sean, right (Staunton, Virginia): “My husband is a delegate, and we are here to show our children how the process works in a constitutional republic. We thought we’d give them front row seats to history. More than anything, we need to become a nation that returns to our roots, to what the Founders originally intended. This idea of separating everyone into groups and identities—we are one people with one common cause, and that’s liberty.”

Renee and Michael Picillo; alternate delegates (Exeter, RI): Michael: “I build houses for a living. I’ve built a few hundred houses in my life. I used to do eight to 10 houses a year. In the past eight years I’ve only done five houses. It’s been a big hit for me.”
Renee: “I’m not a staunch Republican. I’d vote for anyone who’s a good candidate. The thing that bothered me the most is that on our street alone, we’ve had neighbors who’ve lived there 25 years. In the last few years, we’ve watched on our street, probably nine out of 15 houses go up for foreclosure. Our best friends have left. It’s jobs. I like the fact that [Trump] is not a politician and that no ones’ in his pocket.”

Lauren Ricks; guest (Midlothian, Texas): “I’m a supporter of Senator Ted Cruz. I want to make sure our party is not coopted completely. Our primary process has been corrupted. The party has shot down all dissent. I think that because of the [nomination of Trump] we will not only lose the presidency, we will lose the Senate. These people don’t represent me or the people I know. This is not who we are. We reject [Trump] as a person and his policies.”

Jonathan Riley; alternate delegate (San Antonio, Texas): “My parents are Republicans, and I’ve been one my whole life. The most important issue for me is making sure we get a Supreme Court that will uphold the values of the Republican Party. I’m here to protect our platform—to make sure that Trump does not make it less conservative. I fear that our nominee is not really a conservative. He tends to do what he thinks people want him to do, so he’ll get more votes.”

Eric Brakey; state senator (District 20, Maine), delegate, and member of the Republican platform committee, with girlfriend Kaitlin Waterhouse: “I helped draft the Republican Platform, but I ultimately voted against it. The big concern for me is what I see as an overly aggressive foreign policy. I come from the Ron Paul part of the party. It’s not the government’s business what you do in your private life, or how you spend your money. We cannot as Republicans call ourselves fiscal conservatives when we spend 10 times more on the military than any of the next 10 countries combined. Not to mention the human cost of these unnecessary wars, on both sides. We’re supposed to be the party of pro-life values. I don’t think we should so cavalierly dismiss the cost of war.”

Charles Bruckerhoff; delegate (Chaplin Connecticut): “I was in Vietnam from 1968 to ’69. I saw my share of things over there. I was very close to my friends … some of them we lost. One of the first things [Trump] said on the campaign trail is that he wants to make things right for the veterans. And that’s something that appeals to me very much, personally.”

Noon Salih; producer, Al Jazeera Up Front: “I was born in Sudan. I was raised all over the world, and came to the U.S. in 2004. I am here as a journalist, but I wear my identity on my sleeve. This convention is different. Donald Trump is a divisive, contentious individual. As a someone who is a minority in every sense of the word—a black Muslim woman—I’ve heard a multitude of statements he’s made that have been a direct attack on someone like me.”

Anne Mazone; delegate (Grimes, Texas) and Methodist pastor: “The Republican party feels that you can pull yourself up by your bootstraps, but if you don’t have any straps to pull yourself up by. Black men have always been an endangered species. We have a crisis in this country. It’s about the division in the American body—black and white, wealth and no wealth. As Abraham Lincoln said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” We need to talk about race. It’s the elephant in the room. You end up with resentments on both sides. But we’ve got one country, and we are all part of it.”