--- title: 2016 Republican Convention in Cleveland: 5 Things to Know description: What the GOP can look forward to for its quadrennial confab canonical: https://time.com/2966830/2016-republican-convention-cleveland/ author: Michael Scherer article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-07-08T18:32:50.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T09:01:31.085Z article:section: Politics og:title: 2016 Republican Convention in Cleveland: 5 Things to Know og:description: What the GOP can look forward to for its quadrennial confab og:url: https://time.com/2966830/2016-republican-convention-cleveland/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt115cd7f501fa0e82/69868e9b810bbbfb60c917a6/johnny_manziel.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: johnny_manziel og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 2016 Republican Convention in Cleveland: 5 Things to Know twitter:description: What the GOP can look forward to for its quadrennial confab twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt115cd7f501fa0e82/69868e9b810bbbfb60c917a6/johnny_manziel.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 5 Reasons to Be Delighted and Worried About a GOP Convention in Cleveland by [Michael Scherer](https://time.com/author/michael-scherer/) ## Michael Scherer Jul 8, 2014 6:32 PM UTC  Johnny Manziel gestures on stage after being selected as the number twenty-two overall pick in the first round of the 2014 NFL Draft to the Cleveland Browns at Radio City Music Hall Johnny Manziel gestures on stage after being selected as the number twenty-two overall pick in the first round of the 2014 NFL Draft to the Cleveland Browns at Radio City Music HallAdam Hunger—USA TODAY Sports/Reuters by [Michael Scherer](https://time.com/author/michael-scherer/) ## Michael Scherer Jul 8, 2014 6:32 PM UTC **Correction appended, July, 9, 2014\.** Randy Newman [sang it best](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtW8RkI3-c4&feature=kp), more than 40 years before [Republicans chose Cleveland on Tuesday](http://time.com/2966215/gop-republican-2016-convention-cleveland/) to host their 2016 convention. _There’s a red moon rising_ _On the Cuyahoga River_ _Rolling into Cleveland to the lake_ That’s right. The Republicans are coming, and they will be camping out for a week in one of the most Democratic parts of the nation’s most crucial swing state. It’s a blessing and a curse, a wonderful choice and problematic one all the same. Here’s a quick five-point guide to America’s North Coast, the place Newman called the “city of light, city of magic”—and what Republicans should expect. **1\.** Ohio is perhaps the key state in presidential elections. No Republican has won the White House without Ohio since Abraham Lincoln in 1860, and the last candidate in either party to win without Ohio was Democrat John F. Kennedy in 1960\. But there is nothing too swingy about Cleveland. In Cuyahoga County, there are an estimated 345,000 Democratic voters and 126,000 Republicans. **2.** Exactly because it is such a hotbed of Democratic activism, Republicans have a lot to gain, just as Barack Obama did in 2008 by holding the Democratic convention in the once-red state of Colorado. Since 1856, Cuyahoga has voted Republican 19 times and Democratic 21 times in presidential elections. But, says Mike Dawson, the founder of [Ohioelectionresults.com](http://ohioelectionresults.com/), “if you look at the last 10 elections, Cuyahoga County has voted 10 times for the Democrat and never for the Republican.” Dawson, a Republican consultant, argues that the Cleveland convention should boost Republican turnout in the highly-populated Cleveland area, as well as the rest of the key swing state. “It’s not just a boon for the county or the region,” he says. “It’s gonna have a benefit for the whole state.” **3.** The last time the Republicans had a convention in Cleveland, in 1936, they nominated Kansas Gov. Alf Landon, who was defeated by Franklin Roosevelt in a landslide. But the party of Lincoln need not fear a curse. Before that, Cleveland was the site of the 1924 convention that renominated the victorious Calvin Coolidge. (Just try to forget that Grover Cleveland was a Democrat.) **4.** The city of magic has a long history of catering to the peculiar needs of the political class. Back in 1924, during the dark days of prohibition, the great scribe H.L. Mencken reported on the extraordinary steps Cleveland took to satisfy the Republican Party. “My agents in Cleveland report that elaborate preparations are under way there to slack the thirst of the visitors, which is always powerful at national conventions,” he wrote. “The town is very well supplied with bootleggers, and regular lines of rum ships run into it from Canadian ports. Ohio has a State Volstead act and a large force of spies and snoopers, many of them former jail-birds. These agent of the Only True Christianity, no doubt, will all concentrate in Cleveland, and dispute with the national Prohibition blacklegs for the graft. I venture the guess that bad Scotch will sell for $15 a bottle in the hotels and at the convention hall, and that more than one delegate will go home in the baggage car, a victim of methyl alcohol.” Would that it be so again, without the alcohol poisoning, of course. **5.** Two words: [Johnny Manziel](http://www.clevelandbrowns.com/team/roster/johnny-manziel/1bd42a86-c4c9-4e05-9734-fe705b33160e/). They have a ring to them that “Reince Priebus” will never match. There is also the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The inductees [may be overwhelmingly liberal](http://www.rockhall.com/inductees/), but Kid Rock is [always down](http://www.fuse.tv/videos/2012/10/kid-rock-performing-rnc-not-coolest-gig) for a show. –_Additional reporting by Becca Stanek/Washington_ Correction: The original version of this story incorrectly described the outcome of the 2010 election in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. 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