Cancels Republican National Convention

President Trump cancels Republican National Convention in Jacksonville

Andrew Pantazi and David Bauerlein

President Donald Trump canceled the Jacksonville portion of the Republican National Convention Thursday evening, a stunning announcement just six weeks after he chose Jacksonville because of a rift with North Carolina’s governor over Trump wanting a packed convention in Charlotte during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I told my team it’s time to cancel the Jacksonville, Fla., component of the GOP convention,” Trump said in an early evening news conference Thursday when he cited safety concerns.

He praised Mayor Lenny Curry, who had been boosting the convention even as a majority of Jacksonville residents polled said they didn’t want the event here.

Trump said he would still give a speech, but that the event will convert to “telerallies.”

“I just felt it was wrong,” the president said about hosting an event like this during a pandemic. “ … We didn’t want to take any chances.”

The convention was originally scheduled for Charlotte, but the Republican National Committee moved most of the activities to Jacksonville last month after that North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper couldn’t guarantee Trump would have a packed arena without a mask mandate in light of the coronavirus pandemic.

The president said the convention will do a “relatively quick” event in North Carolina on Aug. 24 to handle the nomination.

“We’ll have a very nice something,” he said. “We’ll figure it out. It’ll be online. It’ll be a little bit different.”

Curry and Sheriff Mike Williams posted a joint statement shortly after the president’s remarks.

“We appreciate President Donald Trump considering our public health and safety concerns in making this incredibly difficult decision,” the statement said. “As always, in Jacksonville public safety is our number one priority. President Trump has once again reaffirmed his commitment to the safety of Jacksonville Florida and the people of the United States of America.”

Earlier this week, Williams announced he could not keep the event safe, given the short timeline given to line up agreements for police officers from other cities to come to Jacksonville for security.

City Council President Tommy Hazouri announced Wednesday night that he opposed the event and didn’t think a bill appropriating federal funds would pass, particularly after Curry wouldn’t commit to answering questions at a Friday council meeting.

Hazouri said Trump’s announcement Thursday, which he learned about from the televised media briefing, was a “win for Republicans and Democrats alike.”

“There are too many questions and too many concerns about our public safety from the coronavirus and also the sheriff bringing up not having enough resources” for convention security, Hazouri said. “That in itself was the silver bullet.”

The Republican National Convention consumed elected leaders’ focus at a time the city faces a federal investigation into the JEA privatization debacle, near-record highs in terms of homicides and civil unrest in the wake of police violence, all on top of a global pandemic.

“I’m ready to get back to issues that deal with Jacksonville, Fla., and our city and our people,” said Councilman Matt Carlucci, a Republican. “ … I’m tired of damn partisan politics splitting our city up. I’m tired of it. We’ve got to do what’s right for the whole city.”

Legislation filed Wednesday with City Council showed the city was expecting to get a $33 million grant to cover security costs for the convention slated to run for four days in late August.

In comparison, the city of Cleveland needed $41.5 million in federal grant money for security when it hosted the Republican convention in 2016, and Philadelphia spent $46 million for security costs at that year’s Democratic national convention.

Milwaukee has a $40 million budget for security costs at this year’s Democratic convention, which has been scaled back greatly in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jacksonville was expecting a smaller pot of money because the federal government awarded up to $50 million to the city of Charlotte, which had been planning for two years to host the Republican convention.

That meant the $50 million for security costs would have to be split between Jacksonville and Charlotte, which still would have some convention events and had already spent money for security-related costs.

The legislation with Jacksonville City Council said the 2020 Jacksonville Host Committee would pay for any costs beyond the federal security grant.

The host committee has said in the past it would raise “tens of millions of dollars” in private contributions to underwrite the cost of the convention, but it has not responded to questions about how much money it actually has raised so far.

The host committee said in a statement Trump “made the absolute right decision for the health and safety of the people of Jacksonville and the entire state of Florida.”

“The rise in the number of COVID-19 cases in Florida is serious and the president and the RNC have demonstrated great concern for the safety of all Floridians,” the committee said.

Trump’s announcement, which he delivered during a White House briefing about the coronavirus, was a huge reversal for local Republicans who rejoiced on June 12 about the big political pageant coming to Jacksonville.

“We have said all along that Republican leaders would put the safety and security of our citizens above all else,” Republican Party of Duval County Chairman Dean Black said Thursday. “While this was not the outcome we were hoping for, we know that President Trump made this decision with the knowledge that he was doing what is best for the people of Jacksonville.”

Florida Democratic Party Chairwoman Terrie Rizzo said Trump’s decision was overdue.

“I’m glad Donald Trump took his head out of the sand long enough to realize what a predictable, preventable disaster he was about to inflict on the city of Jacksonville,” Rizzo said. “His ego-driven political stunt has wasted precious time and resources during a pandemic, and Floridians will remember his reckless leadership in November.”

The June 12 announcement that Jacksonville would get the big political show came at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic had relatively low numbers of cases in Florida and the greater Jacksonville area.

But the number of cases has surged since then, turning Florida into a hot spot for the spread of the virus. Trump cited safety as the reason for making the decision to call off the Jacksonville part of the convention.

“We have to be vigilant,” he said. “We have to be careful and we also have to set an example. I think setting the example is very important. It’s hard for us to say we’re going to have a lot of people packed into a room and other people shouldn’t do it.”

Curry, who was chairman of the Republican Party of Florida when Tampa hosted the GOP convention in 2012, spearheaded the campaign to bring the convention to Jacksonville and was co-chairman of the 2020 Jacksonville Host Committee.

When Jacksonville landed the convention, he and the host committee said it would generate at least $100 million in economic impact for the region based on studies of past national conventions in other cities, giving hard-hit hotels and restaurants a shot in the arm. He declared Trump would have a full venue when he accepted the nomination.

But the effect of the coranivus pandemic weighed on the convention, which was scaled back in attendance. Instead of using VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena, plans shifted to the smaller Daily’s Place amphitheater and the open-air TIAA Bank Field.

Curry acknowledged this week that the economic impact would be less than $100 million, though he said the convention still would help businesses that have struggled.

The convention was also slated to run during the 60th anniversary of Ax Handle Saturday, when white supremacists violently beat Black civil rights activists in downtown Jacksonville.

Michael Sampson, a local activist with the Jacksonville Community Action Committee, said he and others were going to shift their focus from protesting the convention to supporting the commemoration of that anniversary on Aug. 27.