RNC may again adopt a party platform this year after not having one in 2020, Lara Trump says

The Republican Party may return this year to adopting a position platform after not taking that step at its convention four years ago, breaking more than 100 years of tradition.

Lara Trump, new co-chair of the Republican National Committee and daughter-in-law of former President Donald Trump, told the Journal Sentinel she expected a return of the party platform in 2024, when the Republican National Convention is held in Milwaukee.

"If you want to call it a commonsense platform, perhaps that would be a good way to go," she said.

She noted that organizers are still in the planning process, but when asked directly if the party platform would return in 2024, she said, "Yeah, I think so."

In 2020, delegates at the Republican National Convention did not adopt a new party platform, with a Republican National Committee resolution citing the "significantly scaled back" size and scope of the convention in the coronavirus pandemic.

"The RNC has unanimously voted to forego (sic) the Convention Committee on Platform, in appreciation of the fact that it did not want a small contingent of delegates formulating a new platform without the breadth of perspectives within the ever-growing Republican movement," the resolution reads.

Had the committee been able to convene, it "would have undoubtedly unanimously agreed to reassert the Party’s strong support for President Donald Trump and his Administration," states the one-page resolution that precedes the 66-page 2016 platform.

Party platforms have internal and external purposes, said Barry Burden, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and director of the university's Elections Research Center.

Internally, the platform serves to get all party faithful around the country on the same page, he said. The document is worked out in the lead-up to the convention and adopted by delegates at the event itself.

Externally, it serves as a marketing document but also a blueprint for what the candidate would do, if elected president, Burden said.

Not having a new platform in 2020 cemented that the Republican Party was the party of Donald Trump, a trend that continued this year with his easy road to the party's nomination despite having lost the presidential election four years ago, he said.

"It is an important part of the process," he said. "It's something that has happened at both major party conventions every four years since about the 1860s. So, when the Republicans didn't draft a new platform in 2020, it was a pretty sharp break with party behavior in the past."

He anticipated a 2024 Republican Party platform would likely reflect Trump's views on issues like immigration and taxes in addition to his grievances about the administration of President Joe Biden.

Alison Dirr can be reached at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: RNC may again adopt party platform in 2024, Lara Trump says