The Republican National Committee has narrowed the list of potential 2024 presidential nominating convention host cities down to four.
According to Politico, Salt Lake City, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, and Nashville have made the final four.
Other cities that were under consideration that did not make the final four were, Houston, San Antonio, Las Vegas and Kansas City, Missouri. Columbus, Ohio had previously expressed interest in being the site of either the GOP or the DNC national conventions.
Richard Walters, the current RNC chief of staff, told Politico, “The Republican National Committee is grateful for and appreciative of the overwhelming interest from cities across the country to host the 2024 Republican National Convention. We’ll continue the process, review bids, and communicate with potential hosts to hear more about what their cities have to offer.”
Considerations for convention host cities include the availability of a sizeable venue to host the on-camera festivities, hotel capacities, sponsorships, security apparatus, among other things.
GOP Officials and members of the site selection committee are expected to visit the four remaining cities over the coming months before a decision is finalized in the Spring of this year.
Nashville and Salt Lake City are located in reliably Republican states, while the cities of Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania are located in states that voted Republican in 2016 and went Democrat in 2020.
If Nashville is selected as the site of the 2024 Republican National Convention, this would be the first time that Music City has hosted the presidential nominating convention for either of the two major national parties.
In 2020, along with Jacksonville, Florida, Nashville was briefly discussed as a possible alternative site for the Republican convention in 2020 when it became clear that the original site, Charlotte, would be untenable for an in-person full convention due to the COVID-19 restrictions. Some convention business was held in Charlotte, but the majority of the on-camera speeches took places mostly virtually including at the White House in Washington, DC and other venues.
Milwaukee, another member of the GOP final four convention host city contenders, was the site of the 2020 Democratic Party convention which saw most delegates not attend in person, with virtual speeches by nominees. Nashville and Milwaukee have the distinction of pursuing the right to be the host city of both the Republican and the Democratic national conventions.
Politico also reported that the former RNC chief of staff and a long time fundraiser for the Republican Party, Anne Hathaway, was appointed to head up the site selection committee this past August.
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Aaron Gulbransen is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network.
Photo “Republican National Convention” by PBS NewsHour CC BY 2.0.
