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Before leaving the Republican Party in 1996, political analyst Tanya Melich had been to all but one GOP convention since 1952.

She's seen it all — Melich attended the last contested convention in 1976, when rising star Ronald Reagan squared off against President Gerald Ford.

Then a Republican feminist, Melich was at the epicenter of the wheeling and dealing that took place on the convention floor. She says the strategy for a contested convention hasn't changed much from four decades ago, and that there are important lessons for today's GOP in the battles she's seen and been apart of. 

Check out some photos from the Republican National Convention throughout the years.