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.