Charlotte’s RNC Can Now Fit Inside One Hotel

 

When President Trump said he wanted to move the Republican National Convention from Charlotte, the mayor of Jacksonville, Florida, Lenny Curry, was the first to raise his hand.

He told the GOP he wanted his city to host.

And now it appears Curry will get his wish.

The Washington Post reported late Tuesday night that Republican National Committee officials have settled on Jacksonville as the site for the glamorous parts of the convention, including the president’s acceptance speech.

The RNC said on Wednesday that other cities are still under consideration. But then RNC chair Ronna McDaniel spoke on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show Wednesday morning.

“First of all we are going to keep the business side of the convention in Charlotte,” she said. “That is for sure. It’s going to be smaller and scaled-down. And we are looking for a different city for a celebration. There’s a couple of more things we need to do before we can announce that, but Jacksonville is absolutely in the front running position.”

Hewitt then asked her if the RNC competition is a horse race, is Jacksonville “way ahead and rounding the third turn?”

“I don’t know if I want to say that because there are so many cities that have come forward – Nashville (Tennessee), Savannah (Georgia), Phoenix, I don’t want to say that yet,” she said. “But Jacksonville has a lot of the things we like and is in a very good position.”

And on Wednesday night, the executive committee of the Republican National Committee formally voted to move the president’s acceptance speech out of Charlotte. It also voted to only bring 336 delegates to Charlotte for what McDaniel calls the “business side” of the convention.

There were more than 2,400 delegates at the 2016 RNC in Cleveland.

The GOP says it’s leaving Charlotte because North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper won’t guarantee the RNC the ability to have a fully packed Spectrum Center.

Republicans say it’s politics. The governor says it’s the pandemic.

The Washington Post story – and McDaniel’s comments – led the city of Charlotte on Wednesday to issue what is, for the city, a relatively stern statement.

The city referenced the RNC’s apparent “unilateral” decision to move and that it wants an “immediate discussion” about what the GOP’s plans are.

Charlotte’s host committee – the group in charge of raising $70 million to hold the convention – also issued a forceful statement.

“This decision is in clear violation of the agreements made with the city of Charlotte, the county of Mecklenburg, Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority, and the Charlotte Host Committee,” the committee said.

So, Why Jacksonville?

One reason is politics – local politics.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is a Republican, and he’s championed bringing the RNC to Florida.

But the biggest factor is that Jacksonville’s mayor, Curry, is a Republican, and the City Council has a Republican majority.

That’s important because so many of those other cities McDaniel mentioned are blue and led by Democrats, like Nashville.

McDaniel said Music City had come forward, but that was really Tennessee’s Republican governor, Bill Lee. The Nashville mayor said the city wasn’t interested.

Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp said he wanted to host. But Atlanta’s Democratic mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms, said she wasn’t interested, so the RNC visited Savannah.

Savannah only has 400,000 people in the metro area, and the RNC would have been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get worldwide media exposure.

But the city’s Democratic mayor, Van Johnson, wasn’t enthusiastic.

“For us, it would be a huge economic shot in the arm at a time when we need it,” he said. “But I don’t think any amount of money is worth jeopardizing the safety of our citizens.”

The RNC is still officially looking. Officials were in Phoenix earlier this week, and they are supposed to be in Dallas soon.

There are questions as to whether Jacksonville has enough hotel rooms – people had to stay on cruise ships for the 2005 Super Bowl – but the city has something it never had with Charlotte: enthusiasm.

And Florida is a state that’s much farther along in reopening than North Carolina. Universal Studios has already opened and Walt Disney World plans to open soon.

What Kind Of Convention Will Charlotte Have?

It doesn’t look like much.

The RNC’s Wednesday vote suggests the GOP plans to arrive in Charlotte, conduct a little bit of business, and then quickly leave.

With only 336 delegates coming, it’s possible the entire convention could fit in one hotel, like 700-room Westin. The GOP wouldn’t need the Spectrum Center. It wouldn’t need the Convention Center. And it probably wouldn’t need a number of venues like the Mint Museum for parties.

The RNC said its party platform committee won’t meet, and the GOP will use the 2016 platform that was adopted in Cleveland.

It also said those 336 delegates will be invited to the president’s acceptance speech, too, so it’s possible that for the final night of the convention, the GOP won’t have anyone left in Charlotte.

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