Michigan Attorney General to Speak at GOP Convention

Cleveland, OH — Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette said Tuesday that he has accepted an invitation to speak at the 2016 Republican National Convention in downtown Cleveland next week, according to media reports.

Schuette is the only Michigander with a speaking role at the convention, where businessman Donald Trump is expected to be nominated as the GOP standard bearer in the November general election.

In an email to the Detroit Free Press, Schuette said he will speak Monday on opening day of the the convention, which continues through July 21 at the Quicken Loans Arena.

Schuette was invited to speak by Republican National Committee Reince Priebes, Schuette spokesman John Sellek told The Detroit News.

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“Bill has been talking with Reince and his team for some time about it,” Sellek told The Detroit News. “He is excited to address the delegates.”

Schuette, the chairman of the Republican Attorneys General Association, is expected to run for governor in 2018. His office has been involved in several high profile cases, including the Michigan case consolidated with cases in Kentucky, Tennessee and Ohio considered by the U.S. Supreme Court in a watershed ruling that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.

Schuette was the chair of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s Michigan campaign, but offered lukewarm support for the real estate mogul after Bush failed to gain traction and dropped out of the race.

He denounced disparaging comments by Trump about Mexican immigrants, women and the disabled, and comments he made early in the nominating season about Arizona Sen. John McCain’s war record.

In the end, though, he said:

“I’m a Republican. I ride for the brand.”

Later, Schuettet reiterated to the Free Press that he was solidly behind Trump. “I’m not going to turn the keys over to Hillary Clinton, I’ll tell you that.”

He made the same point in a letter to to supporters.

“I am excited about this opportunity because by working together in Cleveland to build a unified team, we will take back the presidency,” Schuette wrote. “We simply will not turn the keys to the White House over to Hillary Clinton.

“And Cleveland is where it all starts.”

Staying Home ‘to Mow the Lawn’

The list of prominent Republicans who don’t plan to attend the GOP nominating convention is growing, and in some cases, they’re not bothering to hide their disdain for Trump.

Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, who has long had an icy relationship with Trump, reportedly told the Associated Press that he wouldn’t be attending because “I’ve got to mow my lawn.”

A spokesman for Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse said the senator planned to "take his kids to watch some dumpster fires across the state, all of which enjoy more popularity than the current front-runners,” The Hill reported.

Jeb Bush, once considered the likely Republican nominee, will not attend, and neither will former presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, though they did not attend the convention in 2012 either.

Also on the no-show list are McCain, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, and 2012 GOP presidential nominee and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who has been increasingly critical of Trump.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich, a former contender for the nomination, will be in Cleveland but he won't necessarily attend the convention. Kasich will arrive in Cleveland on Sunday, the day before the convention begins, and will leave Thursday before Trump accepts the nomination. It is also unlikely that Kasich, who has not endorsed Trump, will speak at Quicken Loans Arena.

“He will be in Cleveland doing events around the convention, but not necessarily inside the building,” spokesman Chris Schrimpf told the Dayton Daily News, who said a decision about attending would be by Kasich’s own choice.

It’s not clear exactly what time Schuette will speak. Neither the Republican National Committee nor the Trump campaign has released a schedule.

(Feroze Dhanoa of the Patch National Staff contributed to this report.)

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