North Carolina health officials are asking Republican National Convention executives how many delegates would be attending its Charlotte convention, as well as how they plan to identify and isolate anyone testing COVID-19 positive.
The letter, sent to RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel and convention president Marcia Lee Kelly, comes in the wake of President Donald Trump's demand to know if Charlotte and North Carolina will be reopened from the coronavirus in time for the Aug. 24-27 convention.
Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, shared the correspondence on Twitter.
The letter cites CDC guidelines for coronavirus protection, which Trump has criticized in the past, and asks RNC officials how they will “implement health screenings, social distancing, face coverings, hand hygiene, and other cleaning protocols” during the event.
It also asks if the president still wants a large convention “without social distancing or face coverings.”
Health officials said while the state is in its second reopening phase, “this past week we had our highest day of new lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases in the state, and we have increasing numbers of people hospitalized with COVID-19.”
The Democratic National Convention has already been postponed to Aug. 17-20 in Milwaukee.
Credit: AJC
Trump took to Twitter on Monday, criticizing Cooper’s ongoing coronavirus lockdown. His comments prompted responses by governors of other states, including Georgia’s Brian Kemp, who invited the RNC to consider Georgia as an alternative convention site.
Kemp's offer was followed by one from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who told reporters at a Miami news conference that he “would love” to have the GOP or even the Democratic convention, as either would bring millions of dollars to the state. The Republican governor said if Trump decides to move the GOP convention, it presumably would have to abide by any federal health guidelines and Florida would do its part to uphold them.
“The door is open, we want to have the conversation, whether RNC, DNC, whatever, because I think it will be good for the people of Florida," DeSantis said. The Democratic convention is scheduled to be held in Milwaukee, and party officials have said they are evaluating contingency options, including a potential virtual convention, as a result of the virus.
Atlanta has only hosted one national political convention, the 1988 Democratic convention.
McDaniel said the president “is right to ask for assurances from North Carolina” about the convention.
“We want to have it in North Carolina, the president wants to have it in North Carolina,” she told Fox News on Tuesday morning. “It’s just the governor. He has to work with us. Every state we talk to says we want to nominate the president here, but this governor is up for reelection and hasn’t given us the reassurances we need. We need to be able to move forward in a concrete way. We are going to have those discussions.”
Regional coverage
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David Shafer, chairman of Georgia’s state Republican Party, told The Associated Press that he spoke to Kemp on Tuesday morning.
“We have reached out to Republican National Committee Chairman Ronna Romney to let her know that, if North Carolina falls through, Georgia is ready to help,” Shafer told the AP.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
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