JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel announced Thursday night that Jacksonville, Florida has been selected as the host city to celebrate the renomination of President Donald J. Trump.
Jacksonville is going to be in the national spotlight in late August as the River City hosts major parts of the Republican National Convention for the first time. It’s also the first time in history that the convention will be split, as some of the business parts of the event will still be held in Charlotte, the original host city.
President Trump and the GOP pulled the convention from North Carolina because the Governor would not guarantee that a full crowd would be allowed inside the city’s 19,000-seat Spectrum Center for events due to the COVID-19 pandemic, including nomination acceptance speeches by President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence. Instead those events, along with many of the publicly viewed parts of the convention, will be held in Jacksonville’s 15,000-seat Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena.
Jacksonville beat out other cities under consideration including Nashville, Las Vegas, Phoenix, and Orlando. Republican Mayor Lenny Curry lobbied publicly for the event to be held on the First Coast and Governor Ron Desantis said the state would welcome the event with open arms.