A week ago on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show, President Trump was adamant he would not cancel the Republican National Convention in August.
“Somebody was asking today, ‘Will you cancel your convention?’ I said no way I’m going to cancel the convention,” Trump said. “We’re going to have the convention, it’s going to be incredible.”
Will the coronavirus derail the Republican National Convention in August?
And what about its impact on the general election? Will North Carolina shift more to voting by mail, even after the General Assembly last year eliminated the role of third parties in helping voters request mail ballots?
And how have other national emergencies – like the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic – impacted our elections?
Four years ago, a delegate at the Republican National Convention said this: “I cannot vote for Donald Trump, either for the nomination or in November.”
That was former North Carolina Supreme Court justice Robert Orr, who attended the 2016 RNC in Cleveland as a delegate for former Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
That comment led him to be kicked out of the Cleveland convention – and led him to plan a “shadow convention” of Never Trump Republicans that may run alongside the RNC in Charlotte in August.
When the Democratic National Convention came to Charlotte in 2012, some businesses made lots of money – like the owner of a limo company.
“We did in about three-and-a-half days what we would normally do in two-and-a-half months in volume and revenues,” said James Weymann, owner of SilverFox Chauffered Transportation in Charlotte. “That’s how good it was.”
But for others, it wasn’t a good week.
“It was probably half of what we’d do on a regular week, let alone staffing up for what we thought would be a tremendous week,” said Tim Freer, a co-owner of Cajun Queen restaurant in Elizabeth.
But to understand the Republican National Convention’s economic impact this year, it’s important to step back and get the big picture of convention spending.
On today’s episode of Inside Politics, we’re going to do some compare-and-contrast between 2012, the last time Charlotte hosted a convention, and now as we’re preparing for the RNC.
So, how did Charlotte come to land the 2020 Republican National Convention?
It’s actually a 20-year journey, dating back to the late 1990s and two failed attempts to land national political conventions.
Let’s go back to what Charlotte was like 20 years ago. …
Charlotte’s preparing for 50,000 visitors this summer for the 2020 Republican National Convention. That brings up a number of questions: How did the little blue dot of Charlotte win the bid to host the big red conference of the RNC? How does a political convention even work? And how will it impact the city (and yes, that means you)? Join award-winning reporters Lisa Worf and Steve Harrison for “Inside Politics,” the podcast where we focus on the RNC and the 2020 election through the lens of Charlotte.