It seems so long ago, but America was in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic in the summer of 2020, as both conventions approached. According to a mid-July 2020 Ipsos COVID-19 weekly survey, 77 percent of Americans were staying at home and avoiding contact with others as much as possible. Forty-six percent knew someone who had tested positive, and 14 percent personally knew someone who had died. The Democratic and Republican conventions took place in radically scaled-down “virtual” form as COVID-19 created havoc for organizers, the host cities, and attendees. 

This blog series of five weekly posts will preview both conventions, starting when the GOP convention begins on Monday, July 15, and concluding before the Democrats gavel in their proceedings on August 19. In between, we will provide you with some light convention history. AEI’s Election Watch panel will convene in person on July 29 to recap the Republican National Convention (RNC) and preview the Democratic National Convention (DNC).

In 2020, keeping with tradition that the party out of the White House holds the first convention, the Democrats nominated their candidate first. They selected Milwaukee as their convention site, the first major political party convention ever held there. Because of the pandemic precautions, however, most of the proceedings took place at remote sites around the country, with the host city’s role downgraded.

The choice of Milwaukee was a good one for the Democrats in 2020, as Brookings demographer William Frey wrote after its selection in 2019. Democrats made a “telling choice,” he said, to go with a familiar demographic in selecting Wisconsin—a working class state that had had stood by them from the 1990s through 2012. They could have chosen one of the other finalist cities, Miami or Houston, both diverse and rapidly growing cities that represented their possible demographic future. Donald Trump won Wisconsin in 2016 and the Democrats took back this key Midwestern state in 2020.

This year, it is the GOP that is hosting its convention in Milwaukee. The Democrats, meanwhile, will host their convention in solidly blue Chicago. Chicago holds the record for the most party conventions, hosting more than 25 times between 1860 and 1996.

The roll call for the 49th Democratic National Convention in 2020 was directed from Milwaukee, and Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Kamala Harris received 74 percent of the votes of the delegates to Senator Bernie Sanders 24 percent. The RNC roll call was live from Charlotte, North Carolina.

This year, convention organizers at both sites expect 50,000 visitors and about 15,000 media members. At any time, around 18,000 people could be in the convention arena in Milwaukee. The Democratic National Convention, like the GOP one, is a National Special Security Event, which means the US Secret Service is the lead planning agency. Both cities prepare well in advance for these major political events. Bar hours will be extended from 2:00 a.m. to 4:00 a.m., and if you are itching to go, United Airlines, whose hub is Chicago, has added almost 200 additional flights to Milwaukee and Chicago for the summer festivities.

Former AEI RAs Heather Sims and Eleanor O’Neil did research for the 2016 convention series posts. Multiple sources were used for convention facts. For more information, contact Karlyn Bowman. 

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