The GOP should question holding the convention in Charlotte.
Charlotte Democratic City Council member Braxton Winston said the city needs to slow down and have a dialogue about the merits of hosting the 2020 Republican National Convention, which could be awarded to Charlotte this month.
“Bringing the Republican National Convention to Charlotte is/should be more than an economic development decision,” Winston wrote in a Facebook post Monday night. “We would be asking the people of Charlotte to host a celebration for a brand of politics that has been highly divisive and some would say dangerous to our community. The people of Charlotte deserve to be engaged by their leaders as we consider this decision. To this point I don’t think we have done a good enough job with that engagement.”
In an interview Tuesday, Winston said he was not calling for the city to withdraw its bid.
He said the city needs to have a conversation with residents, many of whom are concerned about hosting the convention, which is expected to nominate President Donald Trump for a second term.
But Winston’s call for dialogue may be too late. The city announced it was bidding on the RNC in February, and city leaders expect the Republican National Committee will award the convention to Charlotte at its summer meetings in Austin, Texas, on July 17-20.
The Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority and city staff have told a small group of city officials to keep their calendars open during those days, and those officials are planning on attending the Austin meetings to celebrate if Charlotte is awarded the GOP convention.
One Republican questioned the timing of Winston’s request.
“It’s great to get community feedback (but) the timing of it’s not appropriate,” said Mecklenburg County GOP chairman Chris Turner, adding that Democratic Mayor Vi Lyles has championed the convention. “If he has some concerns about community input he should have taken that up with his party leadership before they went out and actively pursued the convention.”
There is only one other city bidding for the RNC: Las Vegas. […]
Winston was a community leader during the Keith Lamont Scott protests in Charlotte in September 2016. He ran for City Council last fall and was one of four at-large Democrats elected to represent the entire city.
Because of the Trump administration’s policies, Winston said, he believes this convention might be different from past GOP national conventions. Winston said he would not have had a problem if Charlotte hosted the RNC for past presidents or presidential nominees like George W. Bush or John McCain.
Other cities apparently agreed with Winston. The RNC sent numerous requests for proposals to large cities across the country and was turned down by almost everyone except Charlotte and Las Vegas.
Lyles, also a Democrat, has been an enthusiastic backer of winning the convention. She said it would boost economic development.
Democratic council member Dimple Ajmera said last summer that Trump voters should have no place on City Council or in the mayor’s race. But she has supported the convention, and did so again on Tuesday.