Chicago has been selected the host of the 2024 Democratic National Convention, a huge economic and prestigious boon to the city, national Democratic Party officials announced Tuesday.
Chicago was selected over Atlanta and New York among the finalists to host the anticipated re-nomination of President Joe Biden. Though the choice was announced by the Democratic National Committee, the selection rested with Biden.
The convention is tentatively scheduled to run from Aug. 19 through Aug. 22 next year. The main events in the evening will be held at the United Center,
In announcing Chicago as the host city, the DNC cited the Midwestern “blue wall” of states — Illinois, Michigan and Minnesota — as crucial to Biden’s 2020 victory and to Democratic midterm victories last year.
”Chicago is a great choice to host the 2024 Democratic National Convention,” said Biden said in a statement.
”Democrats will gather to showcase our historic progress including building an economy from the middle out and bottom up, not from the top down,” he said. “From repairing our roads and bridges, to unleashing a manufacturing boom, and creating over 12.5 million new good-paying jobs, we’ve already delivered so much for hard working Americans — now it’s time to finish the job.”
In a statement, Mayor-elect Brandon Johnson, who pitched Biden for the convention in a post-election phone call, said, “I look forward to working closely with the DNC to facilitate a spectacular convention that showcases Chicago’s diverse culture, our beautiful lakefront, our renowned hospitality sector, and our best asset: our amazing people.”
After Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Johnson held a private meeting in the governor’s office on Friday, the Democratic governor said he thought Johnson’s election as mayor enhanced the city’s appeal to the DNC.
”Look, he brings a real excitement to the job, I think, to the people of Chicago and I think that’s being felt in Washington, D.C.” Pritzker said of Johnson.
Though defeated in her bid for reelection, outgoing Mayor Lori Lightfoot sought to take a belated victory lap of sorts, thanking her city team and adding, “I’m proud that we got it done for the people of Chicago.”
The selection came after months of both intensive public and private lobbying by the cities that focused not only on promoting their particular city’s hosting abilities but also by taking shots at how the others lacked the ability to showcase Democratic values.
Hosting a national in-person political convention remains a big economic prize even though it lacks the luster of past history-making gatherings. Conventions now more than ever resemble little more than highly scripted TV productions, particularly the most recent duo of during the pandemic 2020 presidential year when in-person contact was avoided by both Democratic and Republican gatherings.
Still, an estimated 50,000 people — including 5,000 nominating delegates as well as media members and party high rollers — are expected to attend the 2024 event, filling restaurant and entertainment venues and contributing an estimated $200 million to the economy.
“It’s about the show. It’s about putting on the best show possible on the ground, but also on television, painting the picture and demonstrating that it’s about the story of why Democrats need to be in leadership,” Jaime Harrison, chair of the Democratic National Committee, said during the DNC’s Chicago site visit on July 26.
“I want to go to a city and I want to select the city for the president who’s going to help put on the best showcase for the Democratic Party and to showcase the diversity and inclusion and the opportunity that this party creates and presents,” Harrison said.
Atlanta had been viewed as Biden’s sentimental favorite for hosting the convention due to the role Georgia played in helping secure his election as president as well as the recent pivotal Democratic victories in the state for U.S. Senate. Biden previously approved moving Georgia into the early state presidential primary nominating calendar.
On March 20, the Atlanta City Council unanimously approved a resolution allowing Mayor Andre Dickens to enter into contracts for facilities, housing and transportation for the convention. It offered State Farm Arena, the home of the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks, as the principle convention location.
Atlanta was the site of the Democratic convention in 1988, when Gov. Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts was nominated for president. Dukakis lost to Republican nominee, then-Vice President George H.W. Bush.
As Georgia made its bid to host the 2024 Democratic Convention, it came under fire from organized labor, a powerful Democratic constituency, for having few hotels operating with a union workforce and for the state’s “Right-to-Work” laws, which do not compel union membership for jobs.
Major labor unions, New York’s congressional delegation and the Chicago Federation of Labor each lobbed criticism at Atlanta, with the CFL running a digital ad promoting Chicago as “the hometown of the American labor movement.”
The Chicago effort was especially intensive, with Pritzker, the billionaire governor who was reelected last year, and city business and labor leaders in March pledging they could underwrite the estimated $100 million in convention costs to avoid passing expenses along to the Democratic National Committee or local taxpayers.
Later, in a March 22 letter to Biden and Harrison, Pritzker touted support from Midwest governors, congresspersons, mayors and other elected officials backing Chicago as representative of the “blue wall” of states that have been key to past Democratic presidential victories.
“The combination of Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois has voted to send a Democrat to the White House since 1992 with only one exception: In 2016, Donald Trump’s unexpected victory relied upon 80,000 votes in just three states, including fewer than 34,000 votes combined in Michigan and Wisconsin,” the letter said. “That single exception proves the rule: When the future of the country hangs in the balance, we cannot afford to overlook the Midwest.”
In addition to Pritzker, letter signatories included Govs. Tony Evers of Wisconsin, Tim Walz of Minnesota, Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, Gary Peters and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, Illinois’ Democratic congressional delegation and mayors from Kansas City, St. Louis, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Detroit and Louisville.
Pritzker, in welcoming the DNC’s site selection committee to Chicago last July, said the Democratic Party’s national agenda was a “policy alignment that we share in the state of Illinois and among Democrats.”
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Pritzker, who stirred speculation that he was available if Biden did not seek reelection, said Illinois and Chicago under Democratic leadership was “critical for the story that the DNC must tell in 2024, and especially about our great president and vice president, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.”
Chicago is offering the United Center, home of the Chicago Bulls and Blackhawks, as the principle convention location. It also offered the Wintrust Arena for ancillary events. The United Center was the home of Chicago’s last presidential convention in 1996 when Democrats re-nominated President Bill Clinton, who ended up defeating Republican U.S. Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas.
New York made pugnacious pitches to get the convention, including a seven-minute video released March 11 and narrated by actress and talk show host Whoopi Goldberg that appeared to take a few jabs at Chicago.
Goldberg called New York “one of the safest big cities in America,” a pointed shot at Chicago’s crime problems, and said Mayor Eric Adams and Gov. Karen Hochul provide “great stability in the lead up and through the convention,” while Chicago’s mayor remains undecided. Both finalists for Chicago mayor, Brandon Johnson and Paul Vallas, signed pledges to support a Chicago convention.
New York offered discounted theater and museum tickets, restaurant prices and inner-city travel as part of its pitch to bring the convention to Madison Square Garden as well as using the Jacob Javits Center. Madison Square Garden hosted the re-nomination of President George W. Bush in 2004.
At a Times Square rally on March 18, Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine tossed a dart at the food scenes in Chicago and Atlanta.
“If you want to go out to dinner at Cracker Barrel, you can go to one of the other host cities. If you want to enjoy the best restaurants on Earth, you come to New York City,” Levine said.
Republicans are scheduled to hold their convention in Milwaukee next year. Democrats selected Milwaukee for the 2020 convention but it was severely curtailed by COVID mitigation preventing in-person events.
