CLEVELAND (AP) - United for a night, Republicans nominated Donald Trump Tuesday as their presidential standard-bearer, capping the billionaire businessman's stunning takeover of the GOP and propelling him into a November faceoff with Democrat Hillary Clinton.
"This is a movement, but we have to go all the way," Trump said in videotaped remarks beamed into the convention hall.
For Trump, the celebrations were a much-needed opportunity to regroup after a chaotic convention kickoff that included a plagiarism charge involving wife Melania Trump's address on opening night. There were no big missteps Tuesday, but the event was void of the glitzy, Hollywood touch Trump promised, with a series of Republican officials parading on stage to level sharp, but repetitive, criticisms of Clinton.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was one of the few speakers to energize the crowd, delivering a full-throated takedown of Clinton and imploring delegates to shout "Guilty!" as he ticked through numerous accusations of wrongdoing.
"We didn't disqualify Hillary Clinton to be president of the United States, the facts of her life and career disqualifies her," Christie said.
For some Republicans, the night also offered a glimpse of what could have been. House Speaker Paul Ryan, who resisted calls to jump into the presidential race, made a vigorous call for party unity - though his message focused more on the risks of letting Democrats keep the White House and make gains in Congress than a rationale for Trump.
"Let's compete in every part of America, and turn out at the polls like every last vote matters, because it will," Ryan said.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has been a lukewarm supporter of Trump, was greeted with a smattering of boos as he took the stage, reflecting many Republicans' dissatisfaction with party elites.
It was one of the occasional flurries of dissent on the convention floor, including jeers as states that Trump did not win recorded their votes during the nominating roll call vote. Still, Trump far outdistanced his primary rivals, and his vice presidential pick, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, was also formally nominated.
Trump was put over the top by his home state of New York. Four of his children joined the state's delegation on the convention floor for the historic moment and appeared overwhelmed with emotion.
"Congratulations, Dad, we love you," declared Donald Trump Jr.
Some delegates emphasized a need for a televised display of unity after the deeply divisive GOP primary. "United we stand, divided we fall," said Johnny McMahan, a Trump delegate from Arkansas.
But Colorado's Kendal Unruh, a leader of the anti-Trump forces, called the convention a "sham" and warned party leaders their efforts to silence opposition would keep some Republicans on the sidelines in the fall campaign against Clinton.
This week's four-day convention is Trump's highest-profile opportunity to convince voters he's better suited for the presidency than Clinton, who will be nominated at next week's Democratic gathering.
A parade of Trump's campaign rivals and Republican leaders lukewarm about his nomination were taking the stage Tuesday night to vouch for the real estate mogul, including House Speaker Paul Ryan.
Still, the plagiarism controversy and other unforced errors by the campaign cast a shadow over the convention and raised fresh questions about Trump's oversight of his campaign, which gives voters a window into how a candidate might handle the pressures of the presidency.
The plagiarism accusations follow Monday night's speech by Trump's wife. Two passages from her address - each 30 words or longer - matched a 2008 Democratic convention address by Michelle Obama nearly word-for-word.
Trump's campaign failed to quell the controversy on Day 2 of the convention by insisting there was no evidence of plagiarism, while offering no explanation for how the strikingly similar passages wound up in Mrs. Trump's address. The matter consumed news coverage from Cleveland until the evening vote, obscuring Mrs. Trump's broader effort to show her husband's softer side.
Top Trump adviser Paul Manafort said the matter had been "totally blown out of proportion."
"They're not even sentences. They're literally phrases," Manafort told the Associated Press.
Manafort, a longtime Republican operative, has been a central figure in Trump's Cleveland operations. He led efforts to successfully tamp down a rebellion on the convention floor Monday, though the campaign still had to contend with angry outbursts from anti-Trump delegates.
The campaign chairman also upended Republicans' unity message by slamming Ohio Gov. John Kasich in his home state. He called Kasich "petulant" and "embarrassing" for not endorsing Trump or attending the convention, drawing quick condemnation from other GOP leaders worried about angering the popular governor of one of the most important election states.
Tiffany Trump, the candidate's 22-year-old daughter from his marriage to Marla Maples, and Donald Jr., his eldest son and an executive vice president at The Trump Organization, were to speak about their father Tuesday night.