WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats have chosen Chicago to host their 2024 national convention, trying to maintain the party’s momentum after last fall’s midterm election success in the critical Midwest.
The decision, confirmed by a Democratic official who spoke on Tuesday on the condition of anonymity before the official announcement, came after President Joe Biden chose Chicago over finalists that also included Atlanta and New York.
Chicago is heavily Democratic, as is Illinois. But holding the party’s presidential campaign rally in the pro-union city again showed Biden’s commitment to organized labor — which will be critical to his bid to win a second term in the White House.
The move could also antagonize Republicans, who last summer decided to hold their 2024 convention in Milwaukee in another critical Midwestern battleground state, Wisconsin.
The 2020 Democratic Convention was supposed to be held in Milwaukee but was put on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic. Biden delivered a speech accepting his party’s nomination that year to a nearly empty convention center in Wilmington, Delaware, where he has a home and often spends weekends away from the White House.
Milwaukee, however, used the preparations for the 2020 convention to argue with the Republicans who have “turnkey” operations ready for next year.
Chicago hosted the infamous 1968 Democratic convention that is best remembered for the brutal clashes between police and protesters opposing the Vietnam War. The last Democratic National Convention in the city was in 1996, when President Bill Clinton won a second term.
Illinois Democratic Governor JB Pritzker is a key voice in lobbying for Chicago. He pointed to Democrats’ desire to expand electoral gains in the Midwest, particularly in Michigan, where the party ran for governor and won control of both chambers of the Legislature in last fall’s midterms.
That Chicago beat Atlanta was surprising given Georgia’s strategic importance as a swing state. Biden won Georgia two years ago, becoming the first Democrat to run for president since Clinton in 1992, and his party now controls two Senate seats after winning national attention in the last two cycles.
Although Atlanta is heavily Democratic like Chicago and New York, Georgia could be a major deciding factor in the 2024 presidential race.
However, some top Democrats are concerned about the Republican-controlled Legislature and state laws that curtail union membership and LGBTQ rights. There are also concerns about Georgia’s relaxed firearms laws, especially given the number of school shootings across the country – although gun violence is a persistent problem in Chicago.
But shunning Atlanta for the convention could be a double blow for Georgia, which may end up losing an early place in the new Democratic primary calendar.
Biden approved moving Georgia to the No. 4 position in the revised Democratic primary calendar for 2024 – a change intended to strengthen the party’s diverse voter base compared to the old system, which left Iowa heavily white.
In the new primary order approved by the Democratic National Committee in March, Georgia will follow South Carolina, and Nevada and New Hampshire, which will be joint second. It was scheduled before Michigan, a new early Democratic primary state in No.
The top five will have the chance to vote before many other countries on Super Tuesday in early March.
However, Georgia could be knocked out of fourth place because Republican state officials refuse to move to an earlier date that doesn’t coincide with next year’s GOP presidential election. Securing the convention may have softened the blow that was forced out of the first queue early – but it was not.
As he seeks re-election, the president has focused on the 2024 general election, rather than the primary, facing only token opposition from the Democratic challenger, Marianne Williamson, spiritual advisor and author, and anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
New York City and the state are also deeply blue in the presidential race. But voting for the convention may help Democrats in other parts of the country, supporters say. That includes Long Island, where Republican results in key congressional districts helped the party flip the House last year.
Supporters of the Atlanta bid have argued that the city and the rest of Georgia can help lead a Democratic revival in the South, which remains largely solidly Republican.
This story has been corrected to show the other finalist was Atlanta, not Chicago.