The Latest: GOP opens night one with a Trump nomination.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on this week’s Republican National Convention (all times local):

9:38 a.m.

Republicans have begun the process of formally nominating Donald Trump as the party’s 2020 presidential nominee.

A delegate arrives for the start of the first day of the Republican National Convention, Monday, Aug. 24, 2020, in Charlotte, N.C. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

The party has gathered 336 delegates for the roll call vote at a scaled-down convention kickoff in Charlotte, North Carolina, that begins a weeklong effort to convince the American people that he deserves a second term.

Despite the ongoing pandemic, delegates are holding an in-person roll-call vote at the Charlotte Convention Center. Democrats, who held their convention last week, chose to hold their roll call vote created a video montage from states across the country to avoid a large-scale gathering.

Trump is trying to avoid becoming the first incumbent president since George H.W. Bush to lose his reelection bid.

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7:48 a.m.

Former GOP Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona has endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

Flake was one of President Donald Trump’s most consistent Republican critics in the Senate. He penned an Op Ed in The Washington Post in support of Trump’s impeachment.

Flake retired from the Senate at the end of his term in 2019, saying he was out of step with the Republican Party in the era of Trump. He later wrote a book, “Conscience of a Conservative,” that was a critique of Trump.

Flake is one of more than two dozen former Republican lawmakers to announce their support for “Republicans for Biden.” Former Reps. Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania, Jim Greenwood of Pennsylvania, Jim Leach of Iowa, and Sen. John Warner of Virginia are among former Republican lawmakers who also have endorsed Biden.