(Radio Iowa) – The chairman of the Iowa Republican Party is scheduled to deliver the speech that officially nominates Donald Trump for president. Jeff Kaufmann says it will be an honor to speak Monday afternoon at the G-O-P’s national convention. “There’s an energy in the room when you’ve got that many people gathered together for one cause,” Kaufmann said. Party officials believe this is the first time an Iowan has nominated the G-O-P’s presidential candidate.

Kaufmann’s son ran Trump’s 2024 Iowa Caucus campaign. The elder Kaufmann says his mission at next week’s convention will be to secure Iowa’s spot at the beginning of the 2028 presidential race. “Anything that we do to get Donald Trump elected at this point is going to be helpful for us keeping first in the nation status because unlike Joe Biden, I believe he’s going to ask us to the first in the nation state again,” Kaufmann said, “and unlike the Iowa Democratic Party, I will fight and not take, ‘No,’ for an answer.”

David Barker, a member of the Iowa G-O-P’s governing board, says by giving Kaufmann Monday’s speaking slot, the Trump campaign is acknowledging the role Kaufmann and the Iowa G-O-P had in managing the 2024 Iowa Caucuses. “We ran the Caucuses in a very neutral and even handed way so that the voters could decide,” Barker says, “and the way it ended up was they decided on him.” Trump finished with just over half of the Caucus Night votes — and nearly 30 points ahead of his closest challenger.

Republican Party of Iowa chairman Jeff Kaufmann on the “Iowa Press” during a recent appearance on the program. (Iowa PBS photo)

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird was the only statewide elected official who endorsed Trump before the Caucuses and she is scheduled to speak at the party’s national convention in Milwaukee on Tuesday night. The evening’s theme is “Make America Safe Again” and Bird, in a written statement, says the last three and a half years have made it clear Trump’s leadership is desperately needed back in the White House.

At the Republican Party’s National Convention in 2016, the Trump campaign scheduled Iowa Senator Joni Ernst for a prime time appearance on the convention’s opening night. However, people who took the stage before Ernst spoke so long that Ernst’s started speaking well past 11 p.m. — as most convention delegates were leaving the arena.