Government and Politics
December 14, 2024
Nashville continues to be in the hunt to host the 2024 Republican National Convention (RNC).
The four final cities under consideration to host the 2024 GOP presidential nominating convention are Nashville, Salt Lake City, Milwaukee, and Pittsburgh. Politico reported that Pittsburgh is no longer under consideration after the city declined to host a reception for attendees of the RNC’s winter meeting and that the RNC site selection committee will not be visiting that city.
Salt Lake City recently received Republican National Committee visitors, and members of the RNC will visit Nashville and Milwaukee in the near future. Salt Lake City hosted the RNC’s winter meeting.
Tennessee GOP Chairman Scott Golden told The Tennessee Star that he is happy to be in a position to be a cheerleader for Nashville’s efforts to host the 2024 RNC.
“I am not on the RNC committee that decides these matters, so I have no inside knowledge of their deliberations but I do think that the committee would be very happy with Nashville as a host city for the 2024 Republican National Convention. Nashville has ample space and exciting venues for official business, convention festivities, and everything else needed to make the nominating convention a success.”
Golden also said that the RNC site selection committee will be touring Nashville sometime in the spring. Nashville has never hosted a presidential nominating convention for either the Republican or Democrat parties. It was briefly discussed as a possible alternative site for the 2020 Republican National Convention, but that discussion did not lead to any further plans.
The Star previously reported that Nashville was pursuing bids for both the 2024 Republican and Democrat presidential nominating conventions.
Presidential nominating conventions for the two major parties occur every four years during U.S. presidential elections, and are events during which the respective parties’ candidates for president and vice president are officially nominated by convention delegates. Party business such as making changes to party platforms or ratifying rules is also conducted, generally over a three-to-four-day period.
Cities that made successful bids in the past have had large venues for speeches, meeting places for non-public convention business, ample hotel rooms for the tens of thousands of visitors that conventions attract, and entertainment venues for the guests.
Nashville is home to the Bridgestone Arena, Nissan Stadium, the Music City Center, many hotels, the Ryman, Opryland, and the honky-tonks on Broadway, all attractions that make it a desirable host city.