Republicans Choose Charlotte for Their 2020 Convention

The 2020 Republican National Convention will be held in Charlotte, North Carolina, the party announced Friday.

The gathering has been a subject of fierce debate in Charlotte. Though the city — North Carolina’s largest, with about 680,000 residents — hosted the Democratic National Convention in 2012, many residents balked at allowing the 2020 conference, which will presumably include the nomination of President Donald Trump for a second term.

Earlier this week, the Charlotte City Council voted 6-5 to support contracts related to the convention. A Republican National Committee panel then recommended the city, and Friday, party officials formally chose Charlotte in a unanimous vote.

“Charlotte has so much to offer, and we are excited to bring delegates to a city that has demonstrated its Southern hospitality, showcased its vibrant energy and proven that possibilities are endless,” Ron Kaufman, the committee’s site selection chairman, said in a statement.

Republicans and a handful of Democrats in the city argued that the convention would bring many millions of dollars into the local economy — officials estimate the 2012 convention had a $164 million impact — and offer a crucial opportunity for Charlotte, which has long strived to be seen as a “world-class city,” to stand on the global stage. Hosting a controversial convention, they said, would signal the city’s commitment to free speech at a caustic moment.

“Cities need to stand up for our democratic process, and I’m proud that Charlotte is standing up for the democratic process,” former Gov. Pat McCrory, a Republican who was also mayor of Charlotte for 14 years, said in an interview this week.

Controversial gatherings, he suggested, were part of evolving into a major metropolitan area.

“Every politician should support the conventions coming, but that doesn’t mean they have to like the convention that’s coming,” he said.

But many others in Charlotte, which leans Democrat, believe the city is imperiling its carefully tended reputation as an orderly, prosperous city, and risking protests they fear could dissolve into the kind of fatal violence seen last year in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Malcolm Graham, a former member of the City Council whose sister was among the nine people killed in a racially motivated attack at a church in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015, said hosting the convention would aid in the “normalization of what’s not normal.”

Even with the City Council’s formal support — and the support of the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority, which praised the vote Friday — Charlotte’s embrace of the convention is tentative at best. Mayor Vi Lyles, a Democrat who supported the bid, said she would not offer a welcome address.

Democrats have not yet settled on their convention site, but have winnowed their options to Houston, Miami Beach and Milwaukee. But for some local officials, the idea of hosting a national convention, and a vast security operation, is less appealing than it once was.

“Both conventions will be a test for whatever cities have them as the political climate of 24-hour news continues,” McCrory predicted.

This week, though, North Carolina Republicans were simply intent on landing the convention. Looking for any way to lobby influential party leaders who were meeting in Austin, Texas, on Wednesday, the executive director of the North Carolina Republican Party bore doughnuts that read “NC 2020” in red frosting.