Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel announced on Thursday that President Donald Trump will accept the Republican nomination this year in Jacksonville, Florida.
“We are thrilled to celebrate this momentous occasion in the great city of Jacksonville,” McDaniel said in a news release. “Not only does Florida hold a special place in President Trump’s heart as his home state, but it is crucial in the path to victory in 2020. We look forward to bringing this great celebration and economic boon to the Sunshine State in just a few short months.”
Because the party signed a contract to hold the convention in Charlotte, they are obligated to hold some portion of the convention in the North Carolina city. But the announcement now guarantees that this year’s Republican convention will be unlike any other in modern history, where delegates officially elect their nominee in one location, while the nominee accepts the nomination hundreds of miles away.
Gov. Roy Cooper (D-N.C.) had been unprepared to commit to allowing Republicans to hold the large gathering in Charlotte in a few months time, citing COVID-19 risk. By selecting Jacksonville to host the marquee Republican event of the summer, the Trump campaign is making a big investment in another critical battleground state.
In 2016, Trump carried Duval County, which includes all of Jacksonville, by slightly more than 1 percentage point—but neighboring St. Johns County by more than 30 points. The stretch of northeastern Florida is deep red Trump country, where the campaign believes they can expand their margins to help win Florida, which is crucial in building a path to 270 electoral votes.
The Republican National Committee executive committee paved the way to the announcement on Wednesday night when they unanimously approved a plan to significantly scale down the convention proceedings that will take place in Charlotte and to make no changes to the party’s 2016 platform. The vote significantly pairs down the official business with each state and territory only sending six delegates to the gathering, for a total of 336 delegates where there would have been over 2,500.
The delegates, regardless of whether they are physically present in Charlotte, will be able to vote for both Trump and Vice President Mike Pence’s nomination via proxy, but only the six present delegates in Charlotte will be able to vote on other convention business, according to the rules. All delegates who would have been invited to the convention, the spokesperson said, will be invited to Trump’s acceptance speech.
After the Republican National Committee began to search for alternative locations, Jacksonville had long been one of the leading contenders to host the celebratory portion of the event. McDaniel said Wednesday that Jacksonville is “absolutely in the frontrunning position” to host the celebration for the Republican convention.
Jacksonville Republicans had pitched the site as the best big city venue where Republicans control both city and state government.
“This is Trump country here. This is the single best city in America, in which to host the Republican National Convention, and for several reasons. It’s a battleground county in a battleground state, in a city where you have unified Republican governance,” Duval County Republican Chairman Dean Black told CNN.
Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry, the former chairman of the Florida Republicans and one of the few big city Republican mayors, pitched his city as the next convention host on Twitter last week and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican who talks to the President regularly, told Fox this month that the state was ready to host the event.
“We‘ll be able to make those decisions about what precautions need to be taken as you get closer, but to just rule out a convention at this stage, I think, is a mistake,” DeSantis said. “So we’ve said we want to get to ’yes’ on it, and I think you'll be able to do it.”
