Republicans narrow search for 2024 convention site to four cities

Republicans have winnowed down their list of potential host cities for the 2024 Republican National Convention, picking Milwaukee, Nashville, Salt Lake City and Pittsburgh as the finalists. 

The narrowed-down list of contenders was first reported on Friday by Politico. 

There’s a long list of considerations that go into picking a city to host a national political convention, including hotel availability and financial support. GOP officials are set to travel to each of the prospective host cities over the next few months. 

Milwaukee was tapped to host the 2020 Democratic National Convention, but that event was scaled back drastically because of the coronavirus pandemic. The party held much of the convention virtually instead. 

Still, in its bid to host the 2024 Republican National Convention, Milwaukee pointed to its experience preparing for the 2020 Democratic convention. 

As far as host cities go, Milwaukee and Pittsburgh are more traditional choices, given that they’re both in battleground states. The last time either party held a national convention outside of a political battleground was in 2004, when Republicans held their gathering in New York City and Democrats held theirs in Boston.

Democrats are also moving forward with their 2024 convention planning. Party officials have already begun reaching out to officials in several cities soliciting bids for the event.