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SALT LAKE CITY — Salt Lake City is no longer under consideration as host city for the 2024 Republican National Convention.
The convention's site selection committee has narrowed its options down to Nashville and Milwaukee. But Utah's capital city could be considered to host the 2028 convention, according to Politico.
Salt Lake City was announced as part of the committee's shortlist in January. The 2024 convention is where members of the party will select their candidate for the next presidential election.
Utah Republican Party officials said in October that they would submit a bid to host the event, after failing to bring in the 2012 and 2016 events. They coordinated the bid effort with Visit Salt Lake, the organization that promotes tourism in Salt Lake County.
The decision to eliminate Utah's capital city from the list of four finalists came down to conflicts over dates, Utah Republican Party Chairman Carson Jorgensen told the Deseret News Thursday.
Visit Salt Lake already had events scheduled that conflicted with the Republican National Committee's timeline. "We were kind of under the impression early on to bid for August then they decided it was going to be in July and just couldn't make it work," Jorgensen said.
He told KSL.com in October that he believes hosting the event could generate as much as $200 million for the state's economy, and cited the city's growth as a reason why he believed the city could be selected this time around.
Gov. Spencer Cox said Thursday the news is "not very surprising" as the convention typically chooses "battleground" states, and Utah has been a Republican state for many years.
"I'm actually more surprised that we keep getting mentioned in the top three or four than I am that we didn't get selected," Cox said during his monthly PBS news conference.
But he noted Utah is "very good at hosting large events, welcoming the world here" as demonstrated during the Olympics and other events.
