An expected 67 Pa. delegates join the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee

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As many as 67 elected Keystone State residents are in Milwaukee representing Pennsylvania as the Republican National Convention gets underway. Among them is state delegation chair Jim Worthington of Bucks County.

This is Worthington’s third time serving as a Republican delegate, but his first as captain.

“This is quite an honor for me,” he told WHYY News.

Worthington’s role is multivalent: He will be there to help other delegates, find alternates, and liaise with local media — such as WHYY News. He also organized morning breakfast sessions with Laura Trump, Eric Trump, and U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson for the state delegates.

He says the greatest honor will be to present his vote to the nominee during the public vote counts, which will likely earn him time on primetime TV.

The convention is divided into daily themes: Monday will include discussions on how to “Make America Wealthy Once Again,” Tuesday’s theme is “Make America Safe Once Again,” Wednesday will be devoted to “Make America Strong Once Again,” and Thursday, when the president is expected to speak, reverts to the familiar “Make America Great Again.”

The known speakers so far include several “everyday” people including a teacher, a union business manager, a rancher, mothers, teachers, business owners, and war veterans. Among them will be Erin Koper, a community activist living in Pittsburgh who will talk about “homelessness, drugs, and crime.”

Worthington first “got into politics” as an advocate when he lobbied for “right to try,” the name of a movement to let terminally ill patients try out experimental treatments with minimal clinical testing.

Worthington eventually had the chance to meet then-presidential candidate Trump and ask him to support the effort, even hosting a fundraising event for Trump a week before the election. The early efforts paid off and, as president, Trump signed right-to-try legislation in May of 2018.

“That’s how I cut my teeth and got involved,” he said. “And I’ve always been a big supporter since.”

Worthington then started a group People4Trump and has become a significant fundraiser for Republican candidates and causes and contributed thousands of his own money, including more than $100,000 this year.

In January 2020, volunteers with People4Trump asked for buses to “see the president speak one more time” on January 6. Worthington says that he initially rejected the idea and “didn’t want anything to do with it” but eventually relented. He’s adamant that they had nothing to do with the Capitol break-ins.

Worthington also attended Trump’s speech and there’s no sign he marched on the Capitol.

“There was literally 300,000 people at the ellipse,” he said. “There were 1,000 idiots that broke into the Capitol who should have been prosecuted, but at the end of the day, they were none of the people we sent down.”

Some local activists, however, called for a boycott of Worthington’s business, Newtown Athletic Club, saying that he contributed to the riots. In response, he sued for defamation.

“At the end of the day, it resulted in a million dollars of me spending legal fees, because I’ll spend everything I have to defend my name and honor,” he says now.

The activists apologized and made contributions to his charity, “NAC Have a Heart Foundation,” a giving arm of his business which, according to the website, raises funds for ALS research and “supports many other community causes such as the opioid crisis, autism, cancer, literacy and more.”

Worthington says he expects that the assassination attempt on Trump at his rally on Saturday will serve to “galvanize” support for the nominee.

“We couldn’t be any further behind President Trump,” he told WHYY News. “Now you’ve got people that are not only committed to win for him, they are incensed.”