The chairman of the Iowa Republican Party is scheduled to deliver the speech that officially nominates Donald Trump for president. In a written statement issued this afternoon, Jeff Kaufmann said he is “beyond humbled and honored” to speak Monday afternoon at the GOP’s national convention.
“There’s an energy in the room when you’ve got that many people gathered together for one cause,” Kaufmann said during a recent Radio Iowa interview.
Party officials believe this is the first time an Iowan has nominated the GOP’s presidential candidate. Kaufmann told Radio Iowa his mission at next week’s convention will be to secure Iowa’s spot at the beginning of the 2028 presidential race.
“Anything that we do to get Donald Trump elected at this point is going to be helpful for us keeping first in the nation status because unlike Joe Biden, I believe he’s going to ask us to the first in the nation state again,” Kaufmann said, “and unlike the Iowa Democratic Party, I will fight and not take, ‘No,’ for an answer.”
David Barker, a member of the Iowa GOP’s governing board, said by giving Kaufmann Monday’s speaking slot, the Trump campaign is acknowledging the role Kaufmann and the Iowa GOP had in managing the 2024 Iowa Caucuses.
“We ran the Caucuses in a very neutral and even handed way so that the voters could decide,” Barker said this afternoon, “and the way it ended up was they decided on him.”
Trump finished with just over half of the Caucus Night votes and nearly 30 points ahead of his closest challenger. Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird was the only statewide elected official who endorsed Trump before the Caucuses and she is scheduled to speak at the party’s national convention in Milwaukee on Tuesday night. The evening’s theme is “Make America Safe Again” and Bird, in a written statement, said “the last three and a half years have made it clear” Trump’s leadership “is desperately needed back in the White House.”
At the Republican Party’s National Convention in 2016, the Trump campaign scheduled Iowa Senator Joni Ernst for a prime time appearance on the convention’s opening night. However, people who took the stage before Ernst spoke so long that Ernst’s started speaking well past 11 p.m. in Cleveland — as most convention delegates were leaving the arena.