U.S. Democrats pick Milwaukee for 2020 presidential convention

Last updated on September 25th, 2023 at 02:09 pm

(Reuters) – The Democratic Party on Monday picked Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to host the 2020 nominating convention to formally select its candidate for U.S. president, four years after Hillary Clinton narrowly lost the Midwestern state to Republican Donald Trump.

Clinton, who did not campaign in Wisconsin during the presidential campaign in 2016, also lost the states of Michigan and Pennsylvania by narrow margins, helping give Trump the path to victory.

The Democratic National Convention will run July 13-16, marking the first time the party will hold it in a Midwestern city other than Chicago in over a century, the party said in a statement.

While presidential nominees from both major U.S. parties often had enough delegates well before their conventions in recent election cycles, the events play an important role by providing a televised national forum to showcase their message and highlight up-and-coming political personalities.

Milwaukee is the largest city in the swing state of Wisconsin. The party had also considered Miami and Houston as host cities.

At least a dozen Democrats have announced that they are seeking the nomination in the state-by-state voting contests that kick off in Iowa in February 2020. The unusually crowded and diverse field includes five women serving in the U.S. Senate.

Both Bernie Sanders, a democratic socialist and U.S. senator who rose to national prominence when he ran in 2016, and Joe Biden, a former U.S. vice president who has not formally declared but is expected to run, have emerged as front-runners in recent opinion polls.

The Republican National Convention will be held in Charlotte, North Carolina, more than a month later, Aug. 24-27.

Democrats had won Wisconsin in presidential elections going back to the 1980s until Clinton narrowly lost the state to Trump.

The party did well in Wisconsin in the 2018 midterm elections, with Democrat Tony Evers elected governor, replacing Republican Scott Walker.

“The Democratic Party is the party of working people, and Milwaukee is a city of working people,” said Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez. “We saw in this last election what we can accomplish when we come together, invest, and fight for working people, and that was proven right here in Wisconsin.”

The convention will be held in Fiserv Forum, home to the Milwaukee Bucks National Basketball Association franchise, local media reported.

Trump is seeking a second term in the election on Nov. 3, 2020.

(Reporting by Jonathan Allen in New York; Editing by Scott Malone and Jeffrey Benkoe)

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