Tennessee Republican Party Chair Scott Golden told The Tennessee Star, “I’m very optimistic about Nashville’s chances following the RNC’s site selection committee visit to Tennessee.”
The Star previously reported that Nashville is a finalist to be a host city for the 2024 Republican nominating convention.
The Republican National Committee site selection team recently completed its visit to Nashville, where it toured Music City Center and the Bridgestone Arena. Those two venues would be used as the main base of operations for the Republican National Convention if Nashville is chosen to be the host city.
Golden praised the City of Nashville’s involvement with the visit saying, “The City of Nashville was certainly cooperative. They did a really great job leading the tour, which finished with a tour of the Country Music Hall of Fame.”
The site selection committee also took a driving tour of Nashville, noting that 13,000-plus hotel rooms are located within one mile of the Bridgestone Arena.
RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel visited Nashville with the site selection committee, along with Co-Chair Tom Hicks and the rest of the RNC officers. The visit was completed Monday afternoon.
The next step in the selection process will be another pen-and-paper meeting in Washington, D.C. which should take place over the next couple of weeks. The site selection committee will look over the application again and make sure what it saw in Nashville matches what is on the application.
The committee is likely to start working on its final recommendations in April or May and present its recommendations to the full RNC prior to its August meeting. Members of the Republican National Committee will vote on those recommendations at the meeting.
The RNC site selection committee could elect to recommend one or more of the final cities and let the full body vote on one or the other, but it could also just recommend one city.
Golden is proud of the possibilities that Nashville has to offer as a potential host city.
“There’s nobody that’s got what we got,” he said. “The fact that this thing is walkable is a positive and Tennessee will offer a delegate experience like no other.”
Golden also talked about the unique experience that 2024 Republican National Convention delegates and visitors could have.
“The type of environment is unmatched. We think that that’s the strongest thing that Nashville offers. You have the Bridgestone, the Music City Center, Broadway, and more – there’s ample opportunity for every night to be a good party that is going to happen,” he said. “People will leave Nashville on that Friday thinking “‘that was a good convention.'”
The other final contenders still under consideration to host the 2024 Republican National Convention are Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Salt Lake City, Utah. These cities site visits have been completed as well.
If Nashville is selected to host the 2024 Republican National Convention, then it will be the first time that the city has hosted a presidential nominating convention of either major political party.
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Aaron Gulbransen is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected]. Follow Aaron on GETTR.
