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Officials Tight-Lipped About Prospect Of Republican National Convention In Charlotte

Speculation about Charlotte’s bid to host the Republican National Convention in 2020 has picked up steam in the last week.

The Nevada Independent, a startup nonprofit news organization in the Silver State,  reported this week that the three candidate cities for the convention had been cut down to two: Charlotte and Las Vegas. 

Laura White, the Director of Communications for the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority, wouldn’t give an update on the state of the bid, but she did say that the CRVA is working to secure it. 

“We are focused on our bid for Charlotte alone,” White said.

One of the main reasons the city submitted a bid for the convention was the potential financial windfall. In 2012, the Democratic National Convention pumped an estimated $163 million into the Charlotte-area economy, according to an outside study for the city in 2013. But there is another factor for the city's RNC bid, Councilor and Republican Tariq Bokhari said.

“I think that the city is poised again to be on a world stage and really showcase who we are and what we're about in 2020,” Bokhari said.

Bokhari said there are more pros than cons to hosting the convention, which will likely include protests and other safety concerns.

“We can't sit back and say, ‘Well, we're not gonna go after opportunities because we're scared of that,’” he said.