President Biden's decision to host the Democratic National Convention in Chicago represents the triumph of practicality over sentimentality.
He chose a large Midwestern city with plenty of work-friendly hotels, good transportation, and a billionaire governor willing to take over the event. That combination trumped the pull Mr. Biden felt from the second Atlanta, the capital of a state that Mr. Biden won for the Democrats in 2020 for the first time in a generation.
Chicago — unlike the last four Democratic Convention cities — is not in a presidential battleground. But it is the cultural and financial capital of the American Midwest. The United Center, the convention arena, is about an hour away from two crucial presidential states, Wisconsin and Michigan, with sometimes competitive Minnesota nearby.
Democrats used the choice to emphasize their commitment to protecting the “blue wall” of Midwestern states that were critical to their victories in the White House. But the electoral map was not the only factor. Here are the top reasons why Chicago was chosen.
Work
Mr. Biden said during the first year of his term that he would be “the most pro-union president leading the most pro-union administration in American history.”
So it would be politically difficult at best for him to send a national convention to Atlanta, a city with relatively few unionized hotels in a so-called right-to-work state.
An Atlanta convention could push organized labor to limit its financial contributions or even orchestrate outright boycotts. When President Barack Obama went to the Democratic convention in Charlotte in 2012, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers skipped the event.
“Some of our labor members felt they were left behind,” said Lonnie Stephenson, who retired as IBEW president last year. “I think this shows the commitment of the Democratic Party to support this part of the country.”
Money and JB Pritzker
Contracts are expensive and the money to pay for them can be hard to come by. The candidate doesn't want to divert campaign dollars in battleground states to an elaborate party. And the Democratic base is increasingly hostile to many of the big companies that have historically contracted.
Enter JB Pritzker, the Democratic governor of Illinois, a billionaire who also happens to be a former top fundraiser for the party.
Mr. Pritzker was central to the Chicago bid. He lobbied Mr. Biden himself. And before Tuesday's announcement, he privately pledged to raise funds for the convention, a relief to party officials.
“We have a very generous local group of corporate leaders and Fortune 500 companies,” Mr. Pritzker said in an interview Tuesday. “Of course, I am personally committed to participating in the fundraising that is necessary.”
Meaning in this promise is that Mr. Pritzker, who spent more than 300 million dollars in his two gubernatorial campaigns, will serve as a financial backer if outside money doesn't materialize.
Political geography
Democrats were quick to talk about other factors. They maintained the choice of Chicago as a symbol of the party's investment in the Midwest and the central role the region will play in Mr. Biden's 2024 victory.
“The Midwest reflects America,” said Jaime Harrison, the party's chairman.
Republicans had the same idea. They announced last August that their convention will be held in Milwaukee in July 2024, meaning the two conventions will be within driving distance. (Democrats will meet in August.)
But the reality is that the political implications for the host city and state are often exaggerated.
Democrats carried North Carolina (2012) and Pennsylvania (2016) and still lost those states. Republicans hosted in Minnesota (2008) and Florida (2012) and lost both times. And in 2016, the Republicans hosted the nominating convention of Donald J. Trump in Cleveland, but the event divided the party leadership in Ohio. The Republican governor, John Kasich, and his senator, Rob Portman, largely stayed away, then Republicans went on to win the state anyway.
But the decision stung in Georgia, where Democrats had made a strong political case for hosting.
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens called Georgia “the battleground that will decide the 2024 election.”
And Eric Allen, a former state representative who is the party's chairman in suburban Cobb County, said Democrats were wrong.
“I think they were wrong,” he said. “There is an opportunity to use the convention in Atlanta as a regional victory for the Democratic Party. And I think now it will be more difficult.”
Logistics, logistics, logistics
Conventions are international events that require tens of thousands of hotel rooms and a transportation and law enforcement network that can involve dozens of local, state and federal agencies.
Chicago here had an advantage in the number of hotel rooms, 44,000, within reasonable distance of the convention site, along with a public transportation network that has three train lines that have stops within a few blocks of the arena.
“The bottom line is that Chicago can hold a convention of this size in a very central location that's easy to get to,” said Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Illinois.
More exciting to the Democratic National Committee was the fact that Chicago's United Center sits on a 45-acre plot of private land, making it easier to secure and control activities outside. The arena also has twice as many suites as Atlanta's State Farm Arena, which would host the convention there. These suites will serve as magnets for high-cost party donors.
Crime and local politics
It's pretty clear how Republicans will portray Mr. Biden's convention city.
A House Republican campaign spokesman, Will Reinert, scoffed at the choice: “Which is the bigger concern: sirens drowning out nomination speeches or what items attendees should leave at home to make room for their bulletproof vests?” in their suitcase?'
(Republicans did not mention crime rates when they chose Milwaukee, which had a higher homicide rate from Chicago in 2022.)
Democrats countered that pandemic-era crime spikes are falling in Chicago and across the country. As a political issue, tough-on-crime messages can also lose their power. The city this month elected a new mayor, Brandon Johnson, who defeated a more conservative challenger backed by local police unions who focused his campaign on tackling the city's crime.
“The truth is things are getting better,” Mr. Pritzker said. “It's a recovery across the nation in the big cities that includes a recovery in crime. Things are better than they were.”
Maya King contributed to the report.
