President Biden and his party have chosen Chicago to host the 2024 Democratic National Convention, highlighting a large liberal city in the heart of the Midwest, a critical battleground region.
The convention will be held August 19-22 next year at the United Center, the Democratic National Committee announced Tuesday. Republicans plan to hold their 2024 national convention on July 15-18 in Milwaukee, just north of Chicago, highlighting the tight competition for the Midwestern states ahead of another presidential election.
In the final debates, Chicago beat New York — another progressive city whose supporters had boasted about its infrastructure and fundraising resources — as well as Atlanta, a presidential battleground state. Houston was eliminated earlier in the process.
If Mr. Biden becomes his party's standard-bearer in 2024, as many Democrats expect, the Chicago rally will be his first traditionally stormy convention. The 2020 event, scheduled for Milwaukee, became an almost entirely virtual affair after the coronavirus outbreak forced the cancellation of major in-person appearances.
“Chicago is an excellent choice to host the 2024 Democratic National Convention,” Mr. Biden said in a statement. “Democrats will come together to show our historic progress, including building an economy from the middle down, not the top down.”
On Tuesday, Mr. Biden personally called Governor JB Pritzker of Illinois to break the news that Chicago had won the bid. “Chicago is your kind of town,” Mr. Pritzker replied, according to a person familiar with the call who asked to remain anonymous because they were not authorized to discuss the conversation, “and we're going to throw a huge party for you. “
Chicago supporters argued that it was a bastion of Democratic Party values — a liberal place that embraced abortion rights, LGBTQ rights, and labor and civil rights — and that Illinois reflected the nation's diversity. Mr. Pritzker, a longtime Democratic Party donor, also made it clear that the city — home to major party benefactors — had the financial resources, experience and infrastructure to pull off a smooth, large-scale event.
These are important factors in a decision that is often shaped largely by logistical considerations. The Chicago Sun-Times he mentioned that Mr. Pritzker was “among those who gave advance assurances” that “the party would not lose money if Chicago took the convention.”
In an interview last year, he also noted the city's place in the politically competitive Midwest.
“Here we are surrounded by swing states,” he said. “We have a very good relationship with Wisconsin, Michigan and all the surrounding states that are important to the president's re-election.”
Leaders from those states, including Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Sen. Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, endorsed the city's bid. And when Mr. Biden traveled to Wisconsin earlier this year, an advertisement in The Wisconsin State Journal he wrote, “There is no path to the White House without the Midwest.”
“President Biden, let's defend the blue wall. Choose Chicago,” read the ad, paid for by the Chicago Federation of Labor. “P.S. How about 81 degrees and a cool breeze by the lake?”
Chicago's opponents noted that neither the city nor the state was politically competitive in presidential years, with some arguing that Democrats who supported the city missed an opportunity to highlight a real presidential battleground in Georgia.
Atlanta was generally seen as Chicago's closest challenger and had the support of some of Mr. Biden's close allies across the South, including former Senator Doug Jones of Alabama and Representative James E. Cliburn of South Carolina. And Georgia, a state with a rich civil rights history, is an important place for Mr. Biden: it helped him win the presidency and played a critical role in securing Democratic control of the Senate.
The issue of Georgia's facilities, however, became a source of criticism. Some union leaders who supported Chicago or New York argued that, given the importance of labor to the Democratic Party, its convention should not be held in a state that has often been hostile to labor, in a city with very few unionized hotels. .
Some Democrats also questioned whether they should hold their convention in a state run by a prominent Republican governor, Brian Kemp, where abortion rights are tightly restricted and access to guns is not.
On Tuesday, several supporters of the other cities moved to publicly congratulate their opponent.
“While it's disappointing that we won't be gathering in Atlanta in 2024, you can count on Southern Democrats to be there with all the bells and whistles on,” said Mr. Jones, a former Alabama senator. he wrote on Twitter.
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens offered his congratulations in a statement, saying his city “represents the future of the Democratic Party.”
“Georgia is the battleground that will decide the 2024 election, and Atlanta is the city that will deliver for Democrats up and down the ballot,” Mr. Dickens said, emphasizing the importance of investing in the state. “Even without the convention, Atlanta will fight to keep Georgia blue and expand the Democratic map in the South.”
And New York City Mayor Eric Adams suggested his city's bid was at a disadvantage because it is in a safe Democratic district.
“We knew that the DNC's number one priority would be to secure the president's re-election, so it was clear from the beginning that there would be a strong push to host the convention in a battleground area,” Mr. Adams said in a statement that Chicago also applauded. “In the end, that proved to be an insurmountable obstacle.”
In Illinois, Mr. Pritzker, who could one day seek the presidency himself, is perhaps the state's dominant political figure. But Chicago's leadership is in flux after incumbent Mayor Lori Lightfoot lost her bid for re-election amid voter concerns about crime. She he had it was he was prominently involved in the offering of the city.
Brandon Johnson, a progressive county commissioner with strong support from the Chicago Teachers Union, is slated to succeed her in May. Mr. Johnson, whose victory unsettled more left-leaning Democrats, had, too he emphasized his enthusiasm for hosting the conference.
But with a new national focus on Chicago, Republicans may be eager to point to public safety challenges in the city as they seek to paint Democrats as insufficiently tough on law enforcement or to play off the chaos of the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago. .
The House Republican campaign was quick to label Chicago as “crime-infested,” though many cities, including Milwaukeestruggled with public safety during the height of the pandemic and beyond.
“Which is the bigger concern: sirens drowning out candidate speeches or what items attendees should leave at home to make room for their bulletproof vest in their suitcase?” said Will Reinert, a Republican committee spokesman, in a statement — previewing the theme of GOP messaging to come.
Democrats preferred to emphasize the city's 1996 convention, which is often cited as a success and a good experience for convention-goers.
