DNC/RNC host city watch: LATEST: DNC shortlist: Houston, Miami, Milwaukee

[Mr. Morden]

I'm surprised there hasn't been more activity on this front.  Based on the timeline from four years ago, I would expect a long list of possible DNC and RNC host cities to emerge soon, but things have been very quiet on that front.

The latest though is that Charlotte may bid for the RNC:

https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2018/02/15/charlotte-bidding-for-2020-republican-convention.html

I have actually been wondering if the new Trump-ified version of the GOP would prompt some cities to opt out of bidding.  The thinking being that Dems are more likely now than a few years ago to view the GOP as not only wrong on the issues, but racist.  And so, would there actually be some backlash against a city bidding for the RNC in a way that there wouldn't have been when McCain and Romney were the most recent standard bearers?  I guess we'll see.

[Mr. Morden]

See, this is what I mean about the possibility of a backlash.  I don’t think an RNC bid would be controversial in the same way in years past:

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article200555219.html

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[Mr. Morden]

Interestingly, this story says that Charlotte's bid is due on Feb. 28th:

http://spectrumlocalnews.com/nc/charlotte/news/2018/02/19/charlotte-s-rnc-bid-due-next-week

I'm confused.  Is that an internal submission deadline, within the city government?  Because if it's a deadline for the RNC, then why aren't we hearing about any other cities preparing bids?  Does no other city want to host the RNC?

[Mr. Morden]

Milwaukee is looking to bid for the DNC:

https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/local/2018/02/21/milwaukee-leaders-announce-bid-2020-democratic-national-convention/358094002/

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The story notes that no other cities have started the bidding process yet, but that there are a few that are thought to be weighing it:

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[Mr. Morden]

Looks like Milwaukee already has a logo for their bid:

[Mr. Morden]

This story says the deadline for cities to submit bids to host the RNC had been yesterday, but it's been delayed:

http://www.wbtv.com/story/37619098/deadline-to-host-republican-national-convention-extended-charlotte-working-on-bid-submission

What's weird is that I'm still not seeing any talk of other cities preparing their own bids.  If the deadline is right now (albeit now delayed a few weeks) why aren't we hearing about other bids?  Does no one want to host it besides Charlotte?

[Mr. Morden]

Here's another story about Milwaukee's bid for the DNC, which mentions other cities that might bid:

https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/09/milwaukee-democratic-convention-448710

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[Mr. Morden]

This news is a couple of weeks old, but I just found it now: Columbus, OH won't bid for either party's convention:

http://www.dispatch.com/news/20180301/columbus-staying-away-from-2020-political-convention-bids

[Mr. Morden]

Atlanta will bid for the DNC:

https://www.buzzfeed.com/darrensands/atlanta-will-bid-to-host-the-2020-democratic-national

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[Mr. Morden]

San Francisco wants to bid for the DNC:

http://www.sfexaminer.com/sf-mayor-launches-bid-host-2020-democratic-national-convention/

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This story says that Birmingham, AL is also in the mix:

http://fox6now.com/2018/03/29/mayor-barrett-submits-letter-to-dnc-chair-suggests-new-bucks-arena-as-venue-for-2020-convention/

[Mr. Morden]

Charlotte has officially submitted its bid to host the RNC:

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/article207862939.html

Still no word on any other cities being interested in hosting.  Which again, makes me wonder if there'll be a dearth of cities showing interest this time, because of the perception now that the Trump-ified GOP is not just wrong on the issues, but racist, in a way that it wasn't perceived as in past years.

[Mr. Morden]

This story says that Charlotte officials will head to DC some time before the end of this month in order to make an oral presentation to the RNC host city selection committee.....then site visits for candidate cities, probably in May:

http://www.wbtv.com/story/37924579/now-that-charlotte-has-put-in-a-bid-for-the-2020-rnc-what-is-next

The thing is, this is coming up soon, and, AFAIK, no other cities have bid yet.  Is Charlotte going to win this by default?

[Mr. Morden]

Birmingham, Alabama will bid for the DNC:

http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/index.ssf/2018/04/yes_birmingham_is_once_again_v.html

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Looks like it’s a longshot bid:

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Meanwhile, the RNC has already sent representatives to Charlotte to scope out the city’s bid:

http://www.wbtv.com/story/37979495/rnc-co-chairman-in-charlotte-as-city-vies-to-host-national-convention

So so far, I think we have Atlanta, Birmingham, Milwaukee, and San Francisco all interested in bidding for the DNC.  It sounds like there was speculation about Phoenix also being interested, but I haven’t seen anything concrete.

On the flip side, Charlotte is the only city we’ve seen show interest in hosting the RNC so far.  The stories allude to other cities potentially in the mix, but they’re never actually named.  So is it Charlotte by default?  Or maybe there are other cities bidding, but they prefer to remain anonymous?

[Mr. Morden]

Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale is encouraging San Antonio to submit a bid to host the RNC, but the city leadership hasn't decided yet.  Sounds like there've been mixed signals about whether such a bid would be welcome:

https://www.expressnews.com/news/local/politics/article/Trump-s-campaign-boss-wants-2020-GOP-convention-12864925.php

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Interestingly, former mayor and (probable 2020 presidential candidate) Julian Castro isn't a fan:

https://twitter.com/JulianCastro/status/989246003067936773

This is actually a little unusual.  Normally, even politicians of the opposite party try not to throw cold water on their city hosting one of the major party conventions, since they're widely seen as a net positive for local businesses.  But things are a bit different this time because the Trump-ified version of the GOP is seen as toxic by many in a way that it wasn't just a few years ago in the pre-Trump era.  Plus, of course, Castro is playing to a national Democratic primary base rather than local voters, since he's (presumably) running for president.

[Mr. Morden]

Former San Antonio mayor Phil Hardberger doesn't want the city to bid for the RNC, and the reason is Trump:

https://therivardreport.com/parscales-twitter-attack-exposes-divisions-over-hosting-2020-gop-national-convention/

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[Mr. Morden]

Charlotte's still the only city known to have bid for the RNC.  San Antonio is reportedly thinking about it, but no one else is publicly saying that they're interested.  Columbus, Dallas, Nashville, Orlando, and Pittsburgh have all said they're not interested:

Charlotte is going all out to get the GOP convention. No one else says they want it.

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[Mr. Morden]

Looks like Houston also isn't interested in bidding for the RNC:

https://www.sacurrent.com/the-daily/archives/2018/04/27/other-cities-dont-want-the-republican-convention-parscale-is-pushing

Increasingly looks like it'll probably be Charlotte by default (unless there are others who are bidding who are keeping it secret for some reason), since no one else seems interested.  Even if San Antonio does bid, it probably won't be as a competitive a bid as Charlotte, who's done this before.

[Mr. Morden]

So it looks like Maulwukee for the DNC and Charlotte for the RNC. Milwaukee makes the most sense. I love San Francisco, but it'll send the wrong message.

Atlanta's also bidding for the DNC, so I wouldn't rule them out:

https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=284881.msg6123356#msg6123356

[Mr. Morden]

"Growing coalition" pushes back against the possibility of a San Antonio RNC bid

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[Mr. Morden]

Looks like Las Vegas has also bid for the RNC, and there's apparently a short list of (maybe 3?) cities, that includes Charlotte and Vegas:

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article210464159.html

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Note that the story also says that the Vegas bid was put together by the Nevada GOP, without state and city tourism officials actually being on board.  Sounds like a slapdash attempt to create competition for Charlotte.

Meanwhile, it's unclear what the third short listed city is:

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But both Dallas and Houston say they won't bid for the RNC.  So maybe this is just San Antonio, which supposedly hasn't decided to bid yet.

[Mr. Morden]

Edit to the above statement about San Antonio not having decided yet: The mayor of San Antonio now says that the city isn't interested in bidding for either the RNC or the DNC in 2020:

http://news4sanantonio.com/news/local/city-will-not-pursue-gop-convention-bid-mayor-nirenberg-says

So does that mean that the RNC is down to just Charlotte and Las Vegas?  Or is there really a third city that is also in the mix that for some reason doesn't want to be identified?

[Mr. Morden]

RNC host city decision expected "by the end of summer":

https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/03/politics/rnc-convention-site-2020-summer/index.html

[Mr. Morden]

The Nevada GOP is a REALLY bad state party, I'd be surprised if they got the host. Also, am I reading this right? Was the city not involved with the bid?

Yes, you're reading that right.  The Nevada GOP offered a bid for Las Vegas, even though the city government itself wasn't involved.  Similarly, there appears to be a mystery city in Texas with a bid, even though Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio all say they're not not bidding.  So it's possible that it's a Vegas-like situation there too, where the state party made a bid even though the city government wasn't interested.

So it appears that there's a real lack of interest on the part of cities wanting to bid for the RNC, with Charlotte the only city to offer a "real" bid for the convention.  But admitting that would make the RNC look bad, and they want to create fake competition for Charlotte, so they're including the Vegas bid and the Mystery Texas City bid as fellow short-listers.  But I have little doubt that in a couple of months, they'll announce Charlotte as the winner.

[Mr. Morden]

Apparently, these cities have expressed enough interest in hosting the DNC to get requests for proposals:

https://twitter.com/jonward11/status/994244941705596928

[Mr. Morden]

Denver is the city that Perez forgot about.  So the 8 finalists are:

https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/09/politics/democratic-national-convention-2020-cities/index.html

Atlanta
Birmingham
Denver
Houston
Miami Beach
Milwaukee
New York
San Francisco

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