MILWAUKEE — Steve King has been named CEO of the Republican National Convention’s (RNC) Milwaukee host committee.

King, 81, is a longtime member of the Republican Party who served as then-President Donald Trump’s ambassador to the Czech Republic, according to our partners at the Milwaukee Business Journal.

The Milwaukee RNC host committee made the announcement Thursday during the BizJournal’s 2024 RNC Impact Series at the Hilton Milwaukee City Center.

“We need a CEO to run this production and we’re going to name Steve King, who was the ambassador to the Czech Republic,” Reince Priebus, who served as Trump’s chief of staff in 2017, said.

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King was in attendance Thursday, sitting with Priebus and Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson. During an interview with BizJournal, King said he has been retired and living along the North Carolina coast, but changed his plans after being contacted by Priebus.

King, a member of the Republican National Committee, held a top position during the 2016 RNC convention in Cleveland, the Milwaukee Business Journal reports. The Republican party nominated Trump as its presidential candidate during the convention.

“The last successful Republican convention was in a large Midwest city sitting on a lake,” King said about Cleveland and Lake Erie. “The next best convention — even better than that — is a medium-sized big city sitting on a lake.”

King has lived in south-central Wisconsin for 48 years. In the 1980s, he served as chairman of the Republican Party of Wisconsin. His children attended high school in Whitewater and college at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, UW-Milwaukee, and Marquette University.

According to the Milwaukee Business Journal, the Milwaukee host committee members include Priebus, Tim Sheehy of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce, Milwaukee investor and philanthropist Ted Kellner, Republican Party of Wisconsin leader Gerard Randall, Kathryn “Murph” Burke, Visit Milwaukee CEO Peggy Williams-Smith and Tony Povkovich of Uline Corp.