The Republican National Convention will feature more than two dozen “everyday Americans” as speakers who will help hammer home former President Donald J. Trump’s campaign themes and policies, including four people who previously backed Democrats, according to convention and campaign officials.
All four are from key constituencies that the Trump campaign is eager to win over from Democrats in November as Mr. Trump tries to reverse his election defeat in 2020 by chipping away at the coalition that elected President Biden, including Black voters, Hispanic Americans and blue-collar workers.
The Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee have yet to fully announce a speakers list for the convention, which starts on Monday in Milwaukee. The testimonials from “everyday Americans” are expected to be peppered in between elected officials and candidates, party officials and Mr. Trump’s family members, though the convention has not provided a schedule for when any of its invited guests will speak.
On the list announced Friday is Linda Fornos, an immigrant from Nicaragua who attended Mr. Trump’s rally last month in Las Vegas, where she said she had been repeatedly disappointed by Democrats she had supported previously, including Mr. Biden. The Trump campaign has made winning over Latino voters a priority this year, particularly in battleground states like Arizona and Nevada with sizable Hispanic populations.
Also on the list is Robert Bartels Jr., known as Bobby, an official in a New York union who attended Mr. Trump’s visit with construction workers during the former president’s trial in Manhattan and said he was a “lifelong Democrat.” Mr. Trump has pressed for the votes of blue-collar union workers since 2016 and has sought to divide them from union leaders who often support Democrats.
Annette Albright, a Black woman and a former school employee who convention officials said was a “lifelong Democrat,” spoke earlier this year at a town hall in North Carolina hosted by the political organization Moms for Liberty.
With polls showing backing for Mr. Biden slipping among Black voters, long a key Democratic constituency, Mr. Trump has been eager to highlight how he has capitalized, at times in clumsy ways.
Last month, the Trump campaign held an event at a Black church in Detroit where the crowd included a sizable number of white people. The pastor of the church, Lorenzo Sewell, will also speak at the convention next week.
And the convention will give the stage to Shabbos Kestenbaum, one of six Jewish students who sued Harvard University for discrimination. Mr. Kestenbaum is an Orthodox Jew who attended Harvard Divinity School, and the lawsuit claims that Harvard became a bastion of antisemitism, particularly in the wake of Hamas’s attack on Israel last October.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly insisted that Jews who vote for Democrats are insufficiently loyal to Israel or to their cultural and religious beliefs, a remark that critics have said revives an antisemitic trope that Jews have a “dual loyalty” and are not sufficiently loyal to their own countries.
Immigration will also be a dominant issue at the convention, and several people on the “ordinary Americans” list are expected to discuss it, including Michael Morin, the brother of Rachel Morin, 37, who the authorities say was raped and killed while jogging last year by an undocumented immigrant. Jim Chilton, an Arizona rancher whose property abuts the United States’ border with Mexico, and who has previously campaigned alongside Mr. Trump, will also speak.
A number of speakers will also discuss inflation and the economy, helping emphasize Mr. Trump’s contention that Mr. Biden’s policies are hurting business owners while doing little to address the cost of living. They include Sarah Workman, a single mother from Arizona who works two jobs, and Benjamin Josephs, a small-business owner in Michigan, according to the announcement from campaign and convention officials.
Not all of the speakers announced so far appear to serve thematic aims. Last month, Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden exchanged words at the debate over which of them had the better golf game, a fixation that Mr. Trump has since carried over to social media.
The convention will feature two employees of Mr. Trump’s golf properties: John Nieporter, the head golf professional at Mr. Trump’s golf club in West Palm Beach, Fla., who has served as Mr. Trump’s caddie; and Carrie Ruiz, the golf general manager at his club in Doral, Fla., where Mr. Trump held a rally this week.
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