Illinois delegates enjoy anti-Clinton speeches, but also want pro-Trump talk at convention

Although absent from the 2016 Republican National Convention, Hillary Clinton’s name garners as much notoriety from the crowd as the Republican nominee Donald Trump’s wins him cheers. The Illinois delegation, however, sometimes split about whose name should be leveraged more often.

In a speech on Tuesday night, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie positioned his role as a former federal prosecutor to perform a mock trial. Christie’s prepared marks stated: “I welcome the opportunity to hold (Clinton) accountable for her performance and her character. We must present those facts to you, a jury of her peers, both in this hall and in living rooms around the nation.” At the end of each point Christie made, he asked the crowd, “Guilty or not guilty?” to which the crowd unfailingly roared “Guilty” and “Lock her up!”

Though many of the allegations of speakers throughout the night would be disputed on Wednesday by political fact-checkers, the crowd — including many in the Illinois delegation — gobbled up the red meat.

“Oh, it was wonderful,” said Stella Kozanecki, 80, of Mount Vernon, about Christie’s speech. Christie did a good job putting her on trial, Kozanecki said, “He was listing all of the things that (Clinton) had done wrong.” Kozanecki enjoyed the crowd participation of the speech and also breaking into intermittent chants of “Lock her up.”

Although Clinton is decidedly unpopular among the Illinois delegation and its guests, not all of the delegation believed the continued barrage against the presumptive Democratic nominee was ultimately beneficial.

“I just wanted to hear about what the Republicans will do, how Republicans will run the government,” said Pat Brady in an interview with the Associated Press. Brady, from St. Charles, is a former state GOP chairman and a delegate for current Ohio Gov. John Kasich. “The tone should be that Republican policies work in reality and that they’re good for everybody. We’ve already won the argument that Hillary’s a liar.”

Some delegates said they’d like to hear a more “pro-Trump” message opposed to an “anti-Clinton” one. In interviews with the Associated Press, delegates James Devors and David Harris echoed the sentiment. Devors, a delegate from Aroma Park, said that he’d “like to hear more positive stuff about Mr. Trump.”

Harris, a state representative from Arlington Heights, agreed that the Republican Party should focus on their own platform rather than focus on bashing Clinton. “It can’t just be an anti-Clinton message, but a message of where we are going to go strategically and where we move the country.”

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Tuesday’s speeches featured the likes of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and Christie. Dr. Ben Carson, former presidential candidate, helped to round off the remarks of the night. Two children of the nominee, Tiffany Trump and Donald Trump Jr., also spoke.

Maria Hough, a delegate from Thomasboro, Lanna Logan, an alternate delegate from Centralia, and Kozanecki, a delegate from Mount Vernon, enjoyed seeing the Trump children support their father. But they said the young Trumps’ speeches couldn’t hold a candle to the appearance of the candidate himself on Monday night.

“It was supposed to be a surprise,” Hough said, “But we knew he was going to be there from the internet.” On cue, she whipped out her phone and played a short video: The crowd on the convention floor cheers a dark stage when all of the sudden a backlight illuminated the side silhouette of the presidential nominee. The cheering intensifies as the silhouette slowly turns to face the crowd and reaches its zenith as the presidential nominee strode to the front of the stage.

“Oh, I have goosebumps,” Hough said, after replaying the video. The whole experience was like seeing Elvis or some other rock star, Hough added, because although “We Are the Champions” by Queen blared, it was barely audible over the raucous cheering.

For Hough, Logan and Kozanecki, the picture-perfect moments didn’t come from the appearances from Republicans of celebrity-like stature, a former model and her reality-TV husband. Instead, it came from former servicemembers of the Benghazi security team. The trio of Illinois delegates bumped into Mark Geist and John Tiegan in the Quicken Loans arena after the Marines’ joint speech ended. Geist and Tiegan posed for selfies with the three women.

Despite security concerns leading up to the convention, as of Wednesday police had made fewer than two dozen arrests.

This story was originally published July 20, 2016 at 9:34 PM with the headline "Illinois delegates enjoy anti-Clinton speeches, but also want pro-Trump talk at convention."