State-level Democratic leaders from across the country are visiting Chicago ahead of the 2024 Democratic National Convention.
The group of political insiders – mostly made up of state party chairs and executive directors – is in the city to see the two main venues for the convention: McCormick Place, which is set to host the daily activities of the convention, and the United Center, which will host keynote speeches and voting.
Chicago has hosted more presidential nominating conventions than any city in the U.S. Next year’s convention will be the first in Illinois since 1996, at which Democrats renominated Bill Clinton as the party’s presidential candidate.
The cadre of political leaders are also scouting the logistics of the convention including travel routes, event locations and vendors. How to maximize – and fairly distribute – the expected economic boon brought by the thousands of convention-goers has been a major topic of conversation among the DNC’s planners.
Others in the party also hope the convention will be useful for Democrats’ political messaging in 2024.
“This is also the opportunity to show the rest of the country what it means to be American again, to make sure we are reclaiming things like patriotism and democracy and the American flag which belongs to all of us,” Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried said.
Republicans are planning their convention for nearby Milwaukee. Both conventions are set to take place in the summer of 2024.
