Dems kick tires in Milwaukee for possible 2020 convention
Selection group visits to tour venues, meet leaders
When picking a city to host the 2020 Democratic National Convention, a site selection group is looking for diversity, resilience and the ability to put on a really big show.
And, Milwaukee is in the convention chase.
“We believe it will be the greatest in a generation, the most important in a generation,” Democratic Party official Jaime Harrison said Tuesday at the outset of a two-day inspection tour of the city.
Milwaukee, Houston and Miami Beach are the three finalists bidding to host the convention, set for July 13-16, 2020.
“It’s a competitive process and it’s wide open,” said Jess O’Connell, selection director for the Democratic National Committee’s technical advisory group. “We’re looking at three impressive finalist cities that bring their own unique character to the table.”
The whirlwind visit began with a news conference in the soaring atrium at the Fiserv Forum, which is the centerpiece of the city’s convention bid.
The Democrats’ 16-member contingent will tour venues and neighborhoods, meet with business leaders and top city and county officials representing police, the sheriff’s department, transit, rail and the airport.
It’s very much a nuts-and-bolts visit to see if the city can take on the challenge of hosting an event that will lure 50,000 people.
A decision will be made by early next year and the winning bid committee will have to raise “in the tens of millions of dollars” to hold the event, O’Connell said. The DNC will also be raising money for the event, she said.
U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Milwaukee) said Democrats will be welcomed to the city with “Midwestern hospitality.”
“This is the Milky Way, a great place on a Great Lake,” she said.
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said, “Why are we here? We are here because Milwaukee is fighting back.”
He said the city is not only prepared to host a major political convention but is uniquely placed since it is in a battleground state and a region vital to Democratic hopes to reclaim the White House in 2020.
“The Midwest is important and it has been some time since there has been a Midwest Democratic convention,” Barrett said, a reference to Chicago hosting the Democrats in 1996.
“We view this as a way to put Milwaukee in the spotlight, put Milwaukee on the map in a way it hasn’t been before,” said Alex Lasry, an executive vice president of the Milwaukee Bucks who heads the local bid committee.
Lasry said the local committee has an ability to “mold” a compact, dense area from arena to the convention center to enable Democrats to schedule everything from delegate breakfasts and meetings to the main convention events.
“People are going to be able to take a bus down here and not have to go anywhere else,” he said.
Barrett suggested that the Summerfest site could also be used for entertainment.
O’Connell said the delegation was in Milwaukee “to listen and to learn.”
She said there “are many factors that will go into selecting” the host city of the next convention, such as housing, transportation, security, accessibility, arena production and logistics.
O’Connell said the city that hosts the convention “not only has to meet our financial and logistical needs but also embodies the values and character of our party.”
She noted Milwaukee’s history of inclusion in welcoming refugees and economic opportunity as a “proud union town.”
The goal of the convention is to put the party’s presidential nominee “in the best position to win the general election,” O’Connell said.
Harrison said a convention is a big show, with two parts. There’s the back end, “with all the operations, the transportation, the housing,” and then there is the part that American people see on television.
He said Democrats are looking for a city to help the party with the back end so that the party can concentrate on the convention.