NPI's Cascadia Advocate

Offering commentary and analysis from Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, The Cascadia Advocate provides the Northwest Progressive Institute's uplifting perspective on world, national, and local politics.

Thursday, April 2nd, 2020

2020 Democratic National Convention moves out of July and into August due to pandemic

The 2020 Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Con­ven­tion will no longer take place in July as pre­vi­ous­ly planned but will instead be held in August, the week before the Repub­li­can Par­ty is sched­uled to hold its con­ven­tion in Char­lotte, Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty offi­cials announced today. Mil­wau­kee, Wis­con­sin remains the host city.

“In our cur­rent cli­mate of uncer­tain­ty, we believe the smartest approach is to take addi­tion­al time to mon­i­tor how this sit­u­a­tion unfolds so we can best posi­tion our par­ty for a safe and suc­cess­ful con­ven­tion,” said Joe Sol­monese, CEO of the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Con­ven­tion Com­mit­tee (DNCC).

“Dur­ing this crit­i­cal time, when the scope and scale of the pan­dem­ic and its impact remain unknown, we will con­tin­ue to mon­i­tor the sit­u­a­tion and fol­low the advice of health care pro­fes­sion­als and emer­gency respon­ders,” he added.

“I have always believed that Amer­i­can inno­va­tion and inge­nu­ity shine bright­est dur­ing our dark­est days… I’m con­fi­dent our con­ven­tion plan­ning team and our part­ners will find a way to deliv­er a con­ven­tion in Mil­wau­kee this sum­mer that places our Demo­c­ra­t­ic nom­i­nee on the path to vic­to­ry in November.”

“Lead­er­ship means being able to adapt, and that’s exact­ly what our par­ty is doing. The city of Mil­wau­kee has been an incred­i­ble part­ner, espe­cial­ly over the past few weeks as we’ve con­front­ed this glob­al cri­sis, and we could­n’t be more com­mit­ted to high­light­ing Wis­con­sin as a key bat­tle­ground state, as it is at the cen­ter of so many of Trump’s bro­ken promis­es,” said DNC Chair Tom Perez.

“Ulti­mate­ly, the health and safe­ty of our con­ven­tion atten­dees and the peo­ple of Mil­wau­kee is our top pri­or­i­ty. And we will con­tin­ue to be in con­tact with local, state, and fed­er­al health offi­cials as we mon­i­tor this flu­id situation.”

“The Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty is ready to defeat Don­ald Trump, the Amer­i­can peo­ple are ready to elect a Demo­c­ra­t­ic pres­i­dent, and I have absolute con­fi­dence that our team is ready to deliv­er a suc­cess­ful con­ven­tion for our nominee.”

Par­ty offi­cials said they’ve con­firmed that Fis­erv Forum (where the Bucks play), the Wis­con­sin Cen­ter Dis­trict, and major hotels in the Mil­wau­kee area are avail­able dur­ing the week that the con­ven­tion has cho­sen to relo­cate to.

The DNCC also empha­sized it might adjust the con­ven­tion’s for­mat, crowd size, and sched­ule to adapt to the fall­out from the nov­el coro­n­avirus pandemic.

Wis­con­sin lead­ers are relieved the con­ven­tion is still planned to take place in Mil­wau­kee, even if the time­frame for hold­ing it is changing.

“Pro­tect­ing the health and safe­ty of the Mil­wau­kee com­mu­ni­ty remains the top pri­or­i­ty of the con­ven­tion team,” the MKE host com­mit­tee said in a statement.

“We are grate­ful to our part­ners at the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Con­ven­tion Com­mit­tee for mov­ing for­ward with a plan that enables our city to high­light and show­case all that we have to offer.”

“I applaud the DNC for pri­or­i­tiz­ing pub­lic safe­ty while simul­ta­ne­ous­ly keep­ing their com­mit­ment to Mil­wau­kee,” said Vis­it Mil­wau­kee CEO Peg­gy Williams-Smith. “Host­ing the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Con­ven­tion in August will be key to the city’s eco­nom­ic recov­ery once the cloud of COVID-19 has lifted.”

“I look for­ward to work­ing with the DNCC and the Host Com­mit­tee to ensure the event is suc­cess­ful,” Williams-Smith added.

The con­ven­tion’s change of date will neces­si­tate the mod­i­fi­ca­tion of a lot of trav­el reser­va­tions. Peo­ple who had already lined up air­fare, hotels, and ground trans­porta­tion for the week of July 13th-17th will now need to rebook.

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One Comment

  1. Hope it can still be held! 

    # by Joel Munday :: April 9th, 2020 at 2:54 PM
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