Houston wants the GOP and Dems to come for their national conventions
Houston wants the GOP to come to Bayou City for its national convention in 2028.
City Council voted 14 to 2 on Wednesday to pass a resolution in favor of hosting the 2028 Republican National Convention, hoping to add another blockbuster event to the city’s portfolio. Council members Abbie Kamin and Robert Gallegos voted no, saying their constituents are negatively affected by the GOP platform.
Houston has also applied separately to host the 2024 Democratic National Convention. It is in the second phase of that process, competing with New York, Chicago and Atlanta.
Both parties invited the city to bid for the events. Houston was unable to bid for the 2024 Republican National Convention because there were conflicting events at the convention center for the dates the RNC wanted.
City officials said Houston was one of the few cities in the country to receive invites from both Republicans and Democrats, according to reports.
“That’s what we heard, that’s a unique position for us in that both political parties would want to consider us as hosts,” said Michael Heckman, CEO of Houston First Corp., the convention arm of Houston. the city. “That says a lot about Houston, not only about our ability to host this stuff … but we are very diverse demographically. The United States will look a lot like Houston going forward.
In a letter to RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel, Mayor Sylvester Turner touted Houston’s success in hosting big events.
“I am confident that we are the right city and the right time to bring the convention to Houston,” Turner wrote. “Houston is a proven event city and has excelled in hosting high profile national events. Whether celebratory, like the Super Bowl, or somber, like the recent memorial events for former First Lady Barbara Bush, we achieve producer goals while exceeding expectations with transparent execution and a constant focus on public safety.Houston has earned a reputation as a city that turns major events into major successes.
Houston First is not making its offer public, but the convention would take place at the Toyota Center if the RNC chooses Houston, Heckman said. Other programs would include the George R. Brown Convention Center. If Houston is selected, the RNC and the city will then establish an agreement for the services and how to cover their costs.
Houston has not hosted a national convention since 1992, when former President George HW Bush was nominated for re-election at the Astrodome. It hasn’t hosted Democrats since 1928.
City convention officials said such an event could bring hundreds of millions of dollars in economic impact to downtown Houston, restaurants and hotels. The 2016 Philadelphia Democratic National Convention brought in about $230.9 million for that city, according to Houston First Corp., the city’s convention arm.
Houston First presented the measure to City Council on a tight deadline – the application must be submitted to the RNC by July 15. This meant that a council member could have augmented the proposal by “marking” it, a common procedural gesture used by council members to delay a vote for a week. No council member tagged the article, though both Kamin and Gallegos disavowed some Republican priorities.
Kamin, whose District C includes Montrose and the Heights, said many of his constituents are affected by the Republican Party’s anti-gay platform. The 2016 national platform disavowed same-sex marriage, and the platform adopted by the Republican Party of Texas at its convention in Houston this year described homosexuality as “an abnormal lifestyle choice”. Kamin also pointed out that Republicans in Texas endorsed the repeal of the Voting Rights Act and rejected the results of the 2020 presidential election.
“Any organization has the right to take advantage of everything our city has to offer, and they should,” Kamin said. “As a city, we don’t have to proactively seek out and propose resolutions like this that don’t reflect fundamental principles of common decency and humanity.”
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The RNC decided to announce the 2028 host city earlier than usual to avoid being crowded with event space, according to Politico. Houston was among several cities that told the RNC they could not host the 2024 convention because its space was already booked. The RNC is expected to select a shortlist by the fall and announce the host city in early 2023. The Democratic National Committee is expected to announce its 2024 destination by the end of the year, Heckman said.