As GOP returns to Charlotte for convention, DNC chair reaffirms commitment to Milwaukee
They’re one of America’s greatest and grandest political traditions, where speeches are made, nominations accepted and balloons dropped.
But in 2020, the year of the COVID-19 pandemic, Republicans and Democrats are scrambling to put on national conventions of any kind.
The latest twist came Thursday when President Donald Trump pulled the plug on the Jacksonville, Florida, portion of the Republican National Convention.
The president wanted big crowds for his speech accepting renomination, but backed down after a surge of coronavirus cases in Florida made that untenable.
So, for the GOP, it’s back to Charlotte, N.C., beginning Aug. 24. After the news broke, Tom Perez, Democratic National Committee chairman, reaffirmed Democrats would move forward with their scaled-back plans for the Milwaukee convention a week earlier.
That’s where the full convention was initially scheduled all along, before Trump clashed with the state’s Democratic governor over the party’s ability to have a full-fledged event during a pandemic.
Andrew Hitt, chairman of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, said convention organizers were putting in place precautions for delegates, including testing for the novel coronavirus.
“I think they were doing as much as they possibly could,” Hitt said Friday. “I think it’s absolutely wise to have it scaled back. And Charlotte will be scaled back. We have a summer meeting to do as well. We’ll do the nomination of the president and the vice president and, certainly, there will be some organizing and training and discussion for the fall election.”
Hitt said that “obviously a lot of people looked at what was going on in Jacksonville (with COVID-19) and were concerned, which is why the president looked at it and said, we’re not going to be able to do this.”
Democrats have stuck with Milwaukee as the host city even as they shifted the dates to Aug. 17-20 and dramatically scaled back the event.
Democrats will hold a mostly virtual event. Delegates will vote remotely. Joe Biden has said he intends to accept the nomination in Milwaukee.
The party is also billing the event as a
“Convention Across America,” with events sprinkled across the country.
“From the very beginning of this pandemic, Democrats have put the health and safety of the American people first,” Perez said in a statement issued Thursday night. “Unlike Trump, we followed the science, listened to doctors and public health experts, and worked through plans to protect lives.
“That’s how we made the decision to hold a responsible convention that will bring our country together, ensure our delegates can take care of official business without risk to public health, and still shine a spotlight on our host community of Milwaukee,” Perez said.
Perez said the convention “will showcase our candidate, our values and our vision to the nation while keeping people safe and engaging more Americans than ever before.”