After leaving Charlotte, Republicans now scaling back plans for a full RNC in Florida
Republicans are scaling back their convention in Jacksonville, Fla., weeks after leaving North Carolina because they couldn’t be guaranteed a full-sized gathering in Charlotte.
In a letter to delegates, national GOP Chair Ronna McDaniel said public health concerns will limit attendance in Jacksonville. Only delegates — about 2,500 people — will be allowed on each of the first three days, from Aug. 24-26. Only about 7,000 will be in the arena when President Donald Trump accepts the nomination on the fourth day.
The party still plans to hold the “business” part of the convention in Charlotte before gathering in Jacksonville.
It was on June 2 that Trump announced the move to Jacksonville in a tweet. He blamed Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, who said because no one could be sure what the pandemic would look like in late summer, he would not guarantee a packed Spectrum Arena. GOP leaders and Trump had asked for 19,000 people in attendance with no social distancing and no masks.
“We tried to work with the RNC on safety measures but they left because the Governor wisely wouldn’t guarantee a full arena,” Cooper spokeswoman Dory MacMillan said in a statement. “We hope the RNC will work with Jacksonville to greatly scale down the convention and help to keep people safe.”
Other Democrats were more pointed.
“(T)he President has finally recognized what Gov. Cooper had been saying for weeks — that a full-scale convention with no safety measures would be dangerous and deeply irresponsible,” N.C. Democratic Party spokesman Austin Cook said in a statement. “If it wasn’t already obvious that Donald Trump’s attacks against the Governor were purely political, it is now.”
Convention officials have said the governor never gave them guidelines for holding a convention during the pandemic. Cooper asked them for plans for having a safe convention.
“Anywhere they would go, you really don’t know exactly where COVID-19 is going to be in that particular place at the end of August,” Cooper told reporters at the time.
Florida is now a hot spot for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. According to the Centers for Disease Control, only California has more confirmed cases. On Thursday Florida set a new daily record for fatalities from the disease.
Duval County, home to Jacksonville, had a total of 14,992 cases through Thursday. Mecklenburg had 15,646. Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry has mandated face masks be worn indoors.
“They’re bumping up against the reality of the virus,” said Republican Ed Driggs, a member of Charlotte’s City Council.
Driggs said “there was definitely intransigence on both sides which . . . led to the breakdown,” of efforts to keep it in Charlotte. And weeks ago there was still uncertainty about what the pandemic would look like in late summer. Now it’s spiking across the country.
“In hindsight they’re not going to get a better deal than they could have had here,” Driggs said.
On Thursday, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany would not detail what the president had achieved by moving the convention to Florida, costing North Carolinians — as the president tweeted in May — “all of the jobs and economic development” the convention brings.
”The president loves the people of North Carolina. They are well aware of that,” McEnany said. “The president wanted to be able to hold his convention, which is why it was moved to Jacksonville.”
State Rep. Mark Brody of Union County, a member of the GOP national committee, said party officials could not have foreseen the spike in Jacksonville.
“All things being equal and we would have known ahead of time, I guess it would have stayed here (in Charlotte),” he said. “But we didn’t know.”
Mohammad Jenatian, president of the Greater Charlotte Hospitality and Tourism Alliance, was among those who tried to keep the event in Charlotte.
“If they were a little more flexible and understanding things could have worked out here,” he said of the organizers. “As far as I’m concerned, at the end of the day Donald Trump needed Florida more than he needed North Carolina. I wish them luck.”
Michael Wilner of McClatchy’s Washington Bureau contributed.
This story was originally published July 16, 2020 at 2:34 PM with the headline "After leaving Charlotte, Republicans now scaling back plans for a full RNC in Florida."
