It’s Chicago: 2024 Democratic National Convention to be held in the Windy City

The Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty has cho­sen a host city for its next qua­dren­ni­al meet­ing. Chica­go, the Windy City, will serve as the gath­er­ing place for the 2024 Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Con­ven­tion, which will be held from August 19th-22nd, 2024, about a month after the Repub­li­can Nation­al Con­ven­tion takes place in Milwaukee.

(Typ­i­cal­ly, the par­ty that holds the White House sched­ules its con­ven­tion to fol­low that of the par­ty that is con­tend­ing for the presidency.)

“The Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Con­ven­tion is return­ing to the Mid­west, a crit­i­cal Demo­c­ra­t­ic strong­hold: Illi­nois along with Wis­con­sin, Michi­gan, and Min­neso­ta – part of the ‘blue wall’ – were cru­cial to the 2020 vic­to­ry of Pres­i­dent Biden and Vice Pres­i­dent Har­ris and to Democ­rats’ suc­cess in the 2022 midterm elec­tions,” the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Com­mit­tee said in a statement. 

“Chicago’s con­ven­tion bid was sup­port­ed by a wide range of mid­west­ern Democ­rats who rep­re­sent the diver­si­ty of the par­ty, demon­strat­ing the for­mi­da­ble coali­tion that will help re-elect Pres­i­dent Biden and Vice Pres­i­dent Har­ris, and elect Democ­rats up-and-down the tick­et,” the state­ment went on to say.

“The region will show­case Pres­i­dent Biden’s eco­nom­ic agen­da that is rebuild­ing our roads and bridges, unleash­ing a man­u­fac­tur­ing boom, and cre­at­ing good-pay­ing mid­dle-class jobs. Chica­go has already felt the impact of Biden’s [Infra­struc­ture Invest­ment and Jobs Act], includ­ing $144 mil­lion to reha­bil­i­tate the four Illi­nois Inter­na­tion­al Port Calumet Riv­er Bridges, with bil­lions in invest­ments to expand eco­nom­ic oppor­tu­ni­ty around the region.”

“Chica­go is a great choice to host the 2024 Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Con­ven­tion,” said Pres­i­dent Joe Biden. “Democ­rats will gath­er to show­case our his­toric progress includ­ing build­ing an econ­o­my from the mid­dle out and bot­tom up, not from the top down. 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.”

The 2020 Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Com­mit­tee was sup­posed to have been held in near­by Mil­wau­kee, but the par­ty ulti­mate­ly con­vert­ed the con­ven­tion to a most­ly remote for­mat due to the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic and the city only end­ed up host­ing a small con­tin­gent of Demo­c­ra­t­ic lead­ers and DNC staff.

The last in-per­son con­ven­tion was held in Philadel­phia in 2016. Pre­vi­ous host cities were Char­lotte (2012), Den­ver (2008), Boston (2004), and Los Ange­les (2000). Chica­go last host­ed the 1996 Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Con­ven­tion, at which Bill Clin­ton and Al Gore were renom­i­nat­ed for new four-year terms.

The oth­er can­di­date cities for 2024, New York and Atlanta, had last host­ed the con­ven­tion in the two cycles that pre­ced­ed 1996. New York host­ed the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty in 1992, while Atlanta host­ed the par­ty in 1988.

With Mil­wau­kee hav­ing land­ed the RNC, it was not a can­di­date city for the 2024 DNC. Chica­go, how­ev­er, is close to Mil­wau­kee, and the Mil­wau­kee area could ben­e­fit eco­nom­i­cal­ly from the con­ven­tion, which will have a large footprint.

“I am thrilled that Democ­rats will take the stage in Chica­go to share our party’s vision and val­ues,” said DNC Chair Jaime Har­ri­son. “The Mid­west reflects Amer­i­ca and will give Democ­rats an oppor­tu­ni­ty to show­case some of Pres­i­dent Biden and Vice Pres­i­dent Harris’s most sig­nif­i­cant accom­plish­ments for Amer­i­can fam­i­lies. I’m grate­ful to the lead­er­ship of Chicago’s bid for being great part­ners, as well as to the oth­er cities for putting for­ward such strong bids.”

“Chica­go is a world-class city that looks like Amer­i­ca and demon­strates the val­ues of the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty,” said May­or-elect Bran­don John­son of Chica­go, whose vic­to­ry last week gave pro­gres­sives a big elec­toral vic­to­ry at a crit­i­cal time.

“We are unmatched when it comes to host­ing events of this scale. 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.”

John­son’s vic­to­ry could have been a fac­tor in the site selec­tion, the Chica­go Tri­bune report­ed, explain­ing: “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.”

Atlanta’s bid was report­ed­ly hob­bled by the labor move­men­t’s desire for the DNC to pick a host city that isn’t locat­ed in a state with laws that are hos­tile to work­ers’ pow­er to col­lec­tive­ly bar­gain for bet­ter wages and work­ing conditions.

Geor­gia also has a Leg­is­la­ture and a gov­er­nor hos­tile to LGBTQ+ rights, where­as Illi­nois is a Demo­c­ra­t­ic-con­trolled state that is LGBTQ+ friendly.

“Chica­go was select­ed at the con­clu­sion of a rig­or­ous site selec­tion process, which was led by DNC Direc­tor of Con­ven­tion Plan­ning Alex Horn­brook and includ­ed a Tech­ni­cal Advi­so­ry Group of vet­er­ans who have worked sev­er­al cycles of con­ven­tions and are experts in the areas of hous­ing, trans­porta­tion, infra­struc­ture, secu­ri­ty, acces­si­bil­i­ty, and are­na and pro­duc­tion logis­tics,” the DNC said. “These experts trav­eled to Atlanta, Chica­go, Hous­ton, and New York. Late last year, the DNC entered into con­tract nego­ti­a­tions with a final set of cities before select­ing Chica­go as the host to the 2024 Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Convention.”

The Unit­ed Cen­ter — where the Chica­go Bulls and Chica­go Black­hawks play their home games — will be the prin­ci­pal con­ven­tion venue.

“With a capac­i­ty of near­ly 21,000, the Unit­ed Cen­ter is the largest are­na by capac­i­ty in the NBA, and sec­ond largest are­na by capac­i­ty in the NHL. It also has a seat­ing capac­i­ty of 23,500 for con­certs,” its Wikipedia arti­cle notes.

“Open­ing in 1994, the Unit­ed Cen­ter replaced the Chica­go Sta­di­um, which was locat­ed across the street. The first event held at the are­na was WWF Sum­mer­Slam. Due to the lock­out, the Black­hawks did not move in until Jan­u­ary 1995. In 1996, the Unit­ed Cen­ter host­ed the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Con­ven­tion, where it first intro­duced a new style four-screen speech prompt­ing sys­tem for speak­ers con­sist­ing of two glass teleprompters, accom­pa­nied by an inset lectern mon­i­tor, and for the first time, a large under-cam­era con­fi­dence monitor.”

Near­ly thir­ty years lat­er, the Windy City’s Unit­ed Cen­ter will once again wel­come Demo­c­ra­t­ic del­e­gates from all over the coun­try as well as thou­sands of media rep­re­sen­ta­tives and many par­ty lead­ers and spe­cial guests.