Update
Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles and City Manager Marcus D. Jones released statements Friday afternoon following the Republican National Committee’s vote to hold the 2020 RNC in Charlotte.
βI believe this convention conveys a positive message supporting our cityβs belief in acceptance and inclusion. This is our opportunity to, once again, put Charlotte in the international spotlight to demonstrate the democratic process and two-party system that we deeply value.β
β Mayor Vi Lyles
βI look forward to the successes and opportunities ahead as Charlotte prepares to host a safe, successful convention. With that goal in mind, Team Charlotte will develop and implement comprehensive plans related to traffic control, communications, technology and community safety.β
β City Manager Marcus D. Jones
Original Story
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) β Move over, Las Vegas. The Republican Party will host its 2020 presidential nominating convention in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The Republican National Committee finalized its convention site on Friday, picking an East Coast swing state over Las Vegas, the only other finalist. The vote came as hundreds of Republican activists gathered in Texas for the RNCβs summer meeting.
βWe are so thrilled. Congratulations, Charlotte,β RNC Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel said after the unanimous vote.
The pick ensures that tens of thousands of political activists, protesters and journalists will converge on Charlotte in the summer of 2020. The same city hosted the national Democratic convention in 2012.
On the ground in North Carolina earlier in the week, a divided Charlotte City Council narrowly approved a bid to welcome the convention.
Mayor Vi Lyles, Charlotteβs first black female mayor, led efforts to secure the convention, despite critics who decried the attempt because of President Donald Trumpβs statements denigrating minorities, Muslims, women and the LGBTQ population.
Lyles emphasized the vote to approve the bid isnβt an endorsement of Trump.
The mayor described Charlotte as βa growing center of inclusiveness and diversityβ in a joint press conference with McDaniel in Austin after Fridayβs vote.
βThis is a big day for our city,β Lyles said, noting that Charlotte will join fewer than a dozen cities to host both political partiesβ national conventions. βI can promise you today that weβre going to employ all the resources necessary for a successful convention. The planning is already underway.β
On the ground in Charlotte, some are worried about the potential for upheaval outside the convention given divisions within the city, particularly in the wake of violent protests in 2016 in downtown Charlotte following a police-involved shooting of a black man.
βI do not believe that something like β68 is going to happen in Charlotte,β said Larry Shaheen, a Charlotte-based Republican consultant, referring to the violence at the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago.
Given recent events in the city, he said, it would be wise for Charlotte convention organizers to begin building civic unity now for the event despite political divisions to avoid a spark βfanning into the flame.β
National political parties try to be strategic in their convention site decisions.
In North Carolina, Republicans will shower money and attention on a swing state that backed President Barack Obama in 2008 and Trump in 2016.
The stateβs African-American community is viewed as particularly influential. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that 22 percent of North Carolinaβs population is black, a higher percentage than any other presidential swing state.
Las Vegas was a finalist for the GOP convention in 2016 as well. Some Republican leaders feared the cityβs reputation, and the influence of casino moguls Sheldon Adelson and Steve Wynn on Republican politics, might cloud the conventionβs message.
Democrats, meanwhile, have narrowed their 2020 convention choices to Houston, Miami and Milwaukee. Anticipating a crowded and contentious primary battle, theyβre also planning to move up their convention date to give the party more time to come together before the fall general election.
