Philadelphia selected as host city for 2016 Democratic National Convention

It’s offi­cial: the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty has a host city for its next qua­dren­ni­al meet­ing. Philadel­phia, the City of Broth­er­ly Love and Sis­ter­ly Affec­tion, will serve as the gath­er­ing place for the 2016 Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Con­ven­tion, which will be held the week of July 25th, 2016, fol­low­ing the Repub­li­can Nation­al Con­ven­tion Cleve­land. (Typ­i­cal­ly, the par­ty that holds the White House sched­ules its con­ven­tion to fol­low that of the par­ty that is con­tend­ing for the presidency.)

“We’re going to have a great time togeth­er come July 2016 in Philadel­phia — and many more details are com­ing soon,” Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Com­mit­tee Chair Deb­bie Wasser­man Schultz said in an email to the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty’s mail­ing list. “But there’s plen­ty of work for us to do before we reach Philadel­phia, and Democ­rats will need your help to keep the White House blue.”

Sep­a­rate­ly, in a news release dis­trib­uted to the nation­al press, she said: “In addi­tion to their com­mit­ment to a seam­less and safe con­ven­tion, Philadelphia’s deep root­ed place in Amer­i­can his­to­ry pro­vides a per­fect set­ting for this spe­cial gath­er­ing. I can­not wait to join Democ­rats across the coun­try to cel­e­brate our shared val­ues, lay out a Demo­c­ra­t­ic vision for the future, and sup­port our nominee.”

“The City of Philadel­phia is excit­ed and hon­ored to be select­ed as the host city for the 2016 Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Con­ven­tion,” Philadel­phia May­or Michael A. Nut­ter said. “We believe that it was our proven track record of host­ing big events safe­ly and effi­cient­ly with a dynam­ic team of top-tier pro­fes­sion­als to orga­nize and man­age a con­fer­ence of this mag­ni­tude, paired with our City’s tremen­dous ameni­ties, its acces­si­ble loca­tion and his­tor­i­cal sig­nif­i­cance, which made Philadel­phia the ide­al choice for the 2016 Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Convention.”

Philadel­phia is already set to wel­come Pope Fran­cis this Sep­tem­ber for the World Meet­ing of Fam­i­lies. It has pre­vi­ous­ly host­ed six Repub­li­can Nation­al Con­ven­tions (the most recent in 2000) and two Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Con­ven­tions (in 1936 and 1948; the par­ty won the White House in both of those years.)

The oth­er final­ists were Colum­bus, Ohio and Brook­lyn, New York. Colum­bus had been lob­by­ing hard for the con­ven­tion and was real­ly hop­ing to land it, so the dis­ap­point­ment is being felt more acute­ly there. (The Colum­bus Dis­patch already has a sto­ry up lament­ing the city’s high­ly tout­ed yet ulti­mate­ly unsuc­cess­ful bid.)

Logis­ti­cal­ly, Philadel­phia may well have been the safest choice. As men­tioned, it has host­ed nation­al par­ty con­ven­tions before, and it def­i­nite­ly has the infra­struc­ture to house and move all the del­e­gates and media (there is a sub­way sys­tem and plen­ty of hotel rooms). Colum­bus lacks rail tran­sit, though its orga­niz­ers did a good job play­ing up the city’s strengths in their mar­ket­ing and lobbying.

The Ohio Repub­li­can Par­ty imme­di­ate­ly attempt­ed to make fun of the Ohio Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty fol­low­ing the announce­ment, sneer­ing, “Ohio vot­ers take note: the GOP wants your vote. The Democ­rats … not so much.”

That’s ludi­crous, of course: Democ­rats will spend a mas­sive amount of time, tal­ent, and trea­sure attempt­ing to win Ohio next year, just as they did in every sin­gle one of the last few cycles. We point­ed out to the Ohio Repub­li­can Par­ty on Twit­ter that they have lost the last five states they held con­ven­tions in (Tam­pa in 2012, St. Paul in 2008, New York in 2004, Philadel­phia in 2000, and San Diego in 1996).

More­over, in 2012, the Democ­rats lost North Car­oli­na, the state they chose for the 2012 DNC. The data sim­ply does not sup­port the asser­tion that a par­ty is bet­ter posi­tioned to win a state by hold­ing its nation­al con­ven­tion there.

Philadel­phia is a city steeped in his­to­ry, and it ought to make a nice gath­er­ing place for the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty as it meets to nom­i­nate a suc­ces­sor to Pres­i­dent Oba­ma. Peo­ple there cer­tain­ly seem excit­ed about host­ing the Democ­rats. Con­grat­u­la­tions to the City of Broth­er­ly Love and Sis­ter­ly Affec­tion on its selection!