Trump says Republicans ‘forced’ to seek new state to host national convention

Donald Trump said he will seek a new state to host this summer’s Republican national convention after North Carolina refused to guarantee the event could be held in Charlotte without size restrictions because of ongoing concerns over the coronavirus pandemic. 

The president has lobbied for a full-scale convention without face coverings, despite the threat of the virus. His demands are likely to be extremely difficult as several years of planning go into party conventions. 

Trump announced his desire for a change on Twitter, complaining that North Carolina’s Democratic governor, Roy Cooper, and other officials “refuse to guarantee that we can have use of the Spectrum Arena” and were not “allowing us to occupy the arena as originally anticipated and promised”.

Demands for a full-scale convention had raised alarms in North Carolina, which is facing an upward trend in its virus cases. The state has roughly 29,900 cumulative cases and 900 deaths as of Tuesday. About 700 Covid-19 patients are currently hospitalized. Mecklenburg county, where Charlotte is located, accounted for 4,500 cases – more than double the next-highest county – and has nearly 100 deaths.

“We have been committed to a safe RNC [Republican National Committee] convention in North Carolina and it’s unfortunate they never agreed to scale down and make changes to keep people safe,” Cooper tweeted in response to Trump’s statement. “Protecting public health and safety during this pandemic is a priority.”

Traditional GOP conventions bring together roughly 2,500 delegates, the same number of alternate delegates and many thousands more guests, journalists and security personnel. Officials in both parties have been preparing contingency plans for months given the uncertainty and dangers posed by the virus and evolving restrictions on large gatherings meant to slow the spread of Covid-19.

Cooper made clear to Trump that a full-scale convention would probably be impossible to accommodate given the status of the pandemic in his state, and formalized that on Tuesday in a letter to the RNC. 

“We think it is unlikely that we would be to the point at the end of August to be able to have a jam-packed 19,000-person convention in the Spectrum arena,” Cooper said in a letter to Ronna McDaniel, RNC chair. “So the likelihood of it being in Charlotte depends upon the RNC’s willingness to discuss with us a scaled-down convention.”

That prompted the RNC to begin visiting potential alternative sites in GOP-led states, as Republican governors offered up their states. 

Republican governors of Tennessee, Florida and Georgia said they would be interested in hosting a full-scale convention if North Carolina fell through. Tennessee’s governor, Bill Lee, said GOP officials were coming to scout Nashville on Thursday, and called the city “the best place in America to have a convention”.