Democratic City Council member questions hosting 'highly divisive' GOP convention
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.
New city council member wants you to hold his feet to the fire
Braxton Winston’s activism last year was captured in an iconic photo of him standing in between a police line and protesters, shirtless, with his fist raised in the air. He was one of hundreds of people who protested in Charlotte, demanding the po
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.
Las Vegas made a late bid, and the city doesn't yet have a site lined up for the convention. Officials there have said that's not a problem because the gambling center has numerous venues, including a new arena and smaller arenas attached to casinos.
San Antonio, Texas, considered bidding this spring. But its city council voted against pursuing the convention.
Republican council member Ed Driggs doesn’t think Winston’s appeal for community engagement will affect Charlotte’s chances of landing the convention.
“I don’t believe a discussion of how you engage the public in this is going to derail the process,” he said.
He also said he was surprised these questions are coming up now.
“The public has had the opportunity … to express views for quite a while now,” he said. “It didn’t seem to be a broad-based rejection of the idea of having the convention here.”
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.
She said the supports "the economic opportunity" of the RNC but said she wants to work with police about the safety plan for the event.
When asked why he did not raise questions about hosting the RNC earlier, Winston said he had not been involved in the bidding process.
Winston said the city needs to debate the issue further before voting to accept the convention. When Charlotte was awarded the 2012 Democratic National Convention in January 2011, council members took a formal vote to accept it. The council's three Republicans — Andy Dulin, Edwin Peacock and Warren Cooksey — voted in favor of accepting the convention.
Winston's comments started an intense debate on his Facebook page.
"As a Republican, when the Democrats held their convention in our city, I was respectful and welcoming," wrote Robert Myers. "It would seem to me that the Democrats, starting with elected officials should lead by example and do the same if the republicans pick our city."
Rob Marcy wrote: "We should not host the RNC. It has come to be like a hate group, and we should not be welcoming hate groups, even those legitimized by politics. Inviting them here is what I’ll remember most from Mayor Lyles one term as mayor."
So far, the RNC debate has not become a part of council meetings. During the public forum, in which people can speak to officials on any topic, there have been few people speaking about it.
One was former Mecklenburg Commissioner Lloyd Scher, a Democrat. Scher said Charlotte should not host the convention because it would likely lead to heated protests and possibly violence.
But council members and Lyles have been receiving an increasing number of emails from residents questioning the bid.
Charlottean Naomi Brezi said she doesn't understand why the city is bidding.
"(Mayor Lyles) is forgetting who put her in office," Brezi said. "People are calling me and saying, 'Listen we will vote all of these people out.' I think it's a disgrace."
But UNC Charlotte political scientist Eric Heberlig said with signs pointing to a successful bid, such concerns could have come earlier.
"It seems to me that this is late in the game," he said. "It's a long-term relationship the city has to build with Republicans. So if they get a sense that we're trying to renege on the deal we've already made or we’re moving the goal posts, that’s going to make it a harder to implement the convention effectively."
