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Will the 2028 DNC be held in Chicago? Here's what officials are saying
DNC officials spent part of their second day in Chicago at the United Center. The crew that ran the convention in 2024 believes they can pull it off even better this time.
CHICAGO - The same officials who signed off on Chicago’s 2024 Democratic National Convention walked into the United Center on Tuesday. Same building. Same rooms. This time they are deciding whether to come back.
Democratic National Committee technical staff spent the day evaluating Chicago’s venues, security operations, infrastructure and broadcast capabilities as part of a three-day site visit. It is the second day of what the party is conducting in all five finalist cities this spring before choosing a host for its Aug. 7-10, 2028 convention.
Chicago is not just making a case. It is making a case the other four cities cannot make. Philadelphia, Atlanta, Denver and Boston have never hosted a convention and left without a dollar of debt. Chicago did it two years ago.
The 2024 convention generated $371.4 million in economic impact, the largest amount in DNC history. The host committee raised $97 million and spent $83 million. Gov. JB Pritzker wrote a personal check for more than $5 million to make it happen. Federal funds fast-tracked a new CTA Green Line station near the United Center. The host committee put more than $3 million back into local nonprofits.
The Chicago Federation of Labor represents 300 unions. Half a million workers. The people who land the planes at O’Hare International Airport staff the hotel rooms downtown, and work the floor at the United Center. Their president, Bob Ryder, says his members are not starting over. They are picking up where they left off.
"It’s better to take the lessons learned from the last convention and deploy them the place where you learn those lessons," Ryder said.
An argument Chicago cannot win:
Every other city on that finalist list sits in a state Democrats either need to win or want to fight for. Pennsylvania. Georgia. Colorado. Massachusetts.
Illinois is not one of them.
Axios Chicago reporter Justin Kaufmann has been covering the bid since the start. He says the party’s venue decision has never been purely logistical.
"A lot of times, the political party will determine, well, we need to get Pennsylvania, so let’s have it in Philadelphia. Or we definitely need to counter what Republicans are doing in Georgia, so let’s have it at Atlanta. That’s not an issue in Chicago. Illinois is expected to be blue, will continue to be probably in 2028," Kaufmann said.
A proven track record does not fix a map.
The other problem:
Pritzker made the 2024 convention work. He raised the money. He showed up. He put in his own. But he is widely seen as a 2028 presidential candidate, which means his attention and his checkbook may be going somewhere else entirely.
Mayor Brandon Johnson’s term expires in 2027. He may not be in office the day the convention opens.
"If he’s not there, if it moves on and he’s a presidential candidate and maybe not the nominee, not having that kind of consistency might be a problem for Chicago being in this bid," Kaufmann said.
Chicago has hosted the Democratic convention 12 times. More than any other city in the country. The people who built the last one say they are ready to do it again and do it better.
The question is whether any of that matters when the map says go somewhere else.
What's next:
DNC staff will finish site visits to all five finalist cities this spring. A source says the party expects to announce its decision next spring.
The Source: The information in this article was reported by FOX Chicago's Terrence Lee.