Part of Republican National Convention will be held in Jacksonville (UPDATE: No it won't)

[pppolitics]

Seeking a city willing to allow a large-scale event amid the coronavirus pandemic, Republicans have tentatively settled on Jacksonville, Fla., as the new destination for the premier festivities of the Republican National Convention in August, according to three Republican officials briefed on the plans.

The details of the arrangement are still in flux and RNC aides are scrambling to determine whether the northern Florida city has enough hotel rooms to accommodate the quadrennial event, which typically kicks off the final stretch of the presidential campaign.

Republican officials were in Jacksonville on Monday looking at the city and the surrounding areas.

The convention’s more routine and lower-profile meetings still would take place in Charlotte, the original host site for the convention, according to two officials. Those smaller meetings are intended to honor the RNC’s contractual obligation to hold its convention in North Carolina and shield the party from lawsuits for moving the large events elsewhere.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/gop-expects-to-move-its-convention-to-jacksonville-after-dispute-with-north-carolina-over-pandemic-safeguards/2020/06/09/8c96e088-aaaa-11ea-a9d9-a81c1a491c52_story.html

[pppolitics]

Inside Trump’s About-Face on the Republican Convention in Jacksonville

WASHINGTON — Like so much else in President Trump’s life, it was a decision shaped by financial considerations and, in the end, the hotel business.

Mr. Trump’s abrupt cancellation of the Republican National Convention in Jacksonville, Fla. — a big celebration in a battleground state that he hoped would buoy his re-election campaign — surprised some allies, donors and even aides who weren’t expecting the announcement then, which he attributed to Florida’s soaring rate of coronavirus cases.

But the timing of Mr. Trump’s decision on Thursday night was influenced by the imminent need for the Republican Party to book an enormous number of hotel rooms in Jacksonville and sign other costly service agreements, according to multiple Republicans familiar with the plans. The looming deadline for attendees to make deposits on hotel rooms was next Monday, according to a copy of instructions mailed to delegates.

If party officials proceeded to make those reservations and cancel them later, people familiar with the planning said, it would have added financial losses to an already expensive fiasco involving two cities — Jacksonville and Charlotte, N.C., where the convention was originally set — and two sets of donors raising money in both places.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/24/us/politics/trump-republican-convention-canceled-jacksonville.html

[pppolitics]

(CNN) -- President Donald Trump on Monday night said that he will accept the Republican nomination in North Carolina as initially planned, marking a reversal after he attempted to move portions of the party's convention out of the state.

"I'll be in North Carolina, and that's a very big deal because we have a lot of the delegates there and that'll be a nomination process," Trump told CNN affiliate WRAL. "And that's essentially where the nomination, where it's formalized. And I'm really honored to do it in North Carolina."
The President said he would reveal more specifics about his speech -- including the location -- probably by the end of this week or early next week.

The announcement comes days after Trump announced plans to hold convention activities in Jacksonville, Florida had been scrapped. The convention had been moved to The Sunshine State from Charlotte, North Carolina, after Gov. Roy Cooper raised concerns about holding public gatherings during the coronavirus pandemic.

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https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/28/politics/donald-trump-rnc-nomination-north-carolina/index.html

[pppolitics]

Trump says he’s considering accepting GOP nomination at White House

President Trump said Wednesday that he is considering the White House as the venue for his speech accepting the Republican nomination, adding more suspense to his party’s scaled-back convention plans, which were thrown into disarray because of the pandemic.

“It’s something we’re thinking about,” Trump told reporters when asked whether he might deliver the speech from the White House late next month. He said the party would be “picking a location very soon.”

Trump announced last week that Republicans were scrapping the idea of holding major convention activities in Jacksonville, Fla. — a plan quickly cobbled together after North Carolina’s Democratic governor refused to guarantee that a large-scale gathering could proceed in Charlotte, the original host city.

Florida has since recorded one of the nation’s largest surges in coronavirus cases.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-says-hes-considering-accepting-gop-nomination-at-white-house/2020/07/29/7af4fa46-d1a0-11ea-8c55-61e7fa5e82ab_story.html