GOP planning for 19,000 in attendance, full bars and restaurants for Charlotte convention
Republicans are planning a full convention in August, meaning 19,000 people in the arena and hotels, restaurants operating at full capacity to support the event, they said in a letter to North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper on Saturday.
Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel and Republican National Convention President and CEO Marcia Kelly sent the letter, the latest in public communications between Republicans and the Cooper administration over convention guidelines.
The convention is scheduled for Aug. 24 through Aug. 27 at Charlotte’s Spectrum Center. But the coronavirus pandemic has thrown into question whether North Carolina will allow such a large gathering to take place.
The letter came one day after President Donald Trump called Cooper and asked for no social distancing and no required masks at the convention. Cooper suggested “a scaled back event with fewer attendees,” during the call, his communications director Sadie Weiner told the Charlotte Observer in a text message Friday.
The current restrictions on gatherings are 10 indoors and 25 outdoors. Restaurants are not allowed to operate at full capacity and bars are not allowed to open at this time, though state lawmakers are trying to change that.
North Carolina is in Phase 2 of its economic re-opening from the coronavirus, which has killed more than 103,500 nationwide and more than 900 in the state since March.
“A full convention entailed 19,000 delegates, alternate delegates, staff, volunteers, elected officials and guests inside the Spectrum Center. In order to house and feed them, we needed full hotels and restaurants and bars at capacity,” the GOP officials said in their letter of the original plan.
Then, they added: “We are planning to hold a full Convention starting August 24.”
McDaniel and Kelly reiterated their June 3 deadline, but did not — in this letter — indicate they would move the convention if they cannot hold a full event.
“We need to know by Wednesday, June 3 if we will be able to do so. Otherwise, we will immediately need to begin making modifications as to how the Convention will proceed,” they wrote.
Other states have indicated they are interested.
Trump, who will be re-nominated for a second term at the event, threatened to move the convention Monday and Tuesday, which sent off a week’s worth of back-and-forth between the state and convention organizers. McDaniel and Kelly sent a letter on Thursday, outlining some COVID-19 safety measures they planned to take.
Cooper and Mandy Cohen, the North Carolina secretary of Health and Human Services, said they need more complete protocols and guidelines from the GOP. The RNC has said it needs better guidelines from the state.
“We have received no guidance that provides us with any assurances that the Convention can proceed according to the terms of the various participants’ original arrangements,” McDaniel and Kelly wrote.
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This story was originally published May 30, 2020 at 6:40 PM with the headline "GOP planning for 19,000 in attendance, full bars and restaurants for Charlotte convention."
