Who Is Speaking When at the Republican National Convention?
Now that Day One is officially not happening and the Republican Convention schedule has been compressed and re-configured, you might need to adjust your own schedule to catch your favorite politicians. Thankfully, official convention programs have gotten smaller and shorter over the years (the better to make TV executives happy), so there's not as much to move around. Other than the first day, nothing formal happens during the afternoon. Luckily, pushing Monday's events back to Tuesday to avoid the rainstorms wasn't too disruptive. They also pushed up the evening start times by half an hour to squeeze in more speakers.
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At 2:00 p.m. today, Chairman Reince Priebus will call the convention to order and then immediately declare a recess until Tuesday afternoon at 2:00. Oh, but not before starting the "debt clock" that will sit on stage and count down (or is up?) continuously throughout the convention.
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On Tuesday, the afternoon will be filled with all the parliamentary procedural stuff, like delegate credential, rules, committee forming, and the official photograph. That's also when they will do the roll call of states that ends with the formal nomination of Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan to their respective offices. The big speeches will begin at 7:00 p.m. EDT each night and will end (hopefully) around 11:00 p.m. On Wednesday and Thursday, there will be no official afternoon events — though there will be rallies and side events all across Tampa throughout the week.
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Here's a list of the key speakers for each night. Exact times aren't given (because who knows how long each of them will talk), but they should appear in roughly this order. You can see full roster here.
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TUESDAY: John Boehner, Rick Santorum, Sen. Kelly Ayotte, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Texas Senate candidate Ted Cruz, former Obama supporter Artur Davis, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, then the big two ones by Ann Romney and Chris Christie.
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WEDNESDAY: A tribute video to Ron Paul, Sen. Mitch McConnell, Sen. Rand Paul, Sen. John McCain, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Sen. John Thune, Sen. Rob Portman, Tim Pawlenty (followed by a tribute to both the Presidents Bush), Mike Huckabee, Condoleeza Rice, and then New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez will introduce Paul Ryan.
THURSDAY: Rep. Connie Mack, a Ronald Reagan tribute, Newt Gingrich, Craig Romney, Jeb Bush, a procession of former Massachusetts officials, and then Sen. Marco Rubio will introduce Mitt Romney.
