A political convention in Chicago?
Why not?
If the city gets the 2024 Democratic National Convention — obviously, not yet even close to a certainty — it would be the 25th to be held here.
Although Chicago hasn’t hosted a major party gathering in more than a quarter of a century, the city was historically the nation’s most popular site for national political conventions.
Chicago’s first was the 1860 gathering that saw Republicans nominate Abraham Lincoln at a hastily built frame building at Lake and Wacker nicknamed the Wigwam. It was destroyed in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. And its most recent was the 1996 convention at which Democrats renominated President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore at the United Center on the Near West Side.
At the time of the 1996 convention, the city had hosted more than twice as many major party political conventions as any other U.S. city.
In addition to Lincoln, other presidents nominated here include Ulysses S. Grant, James A. Garfield, Benjamin Harrison, Grover Cleveland, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Others include Republican Richard M. Nixon, nominated here for his failed 1960 losing bid to John F. Kennedy, and Republican Warren G. Harding in 1920. Harding secured his party’s nomination, after his campaign manager reportedly predicted with delegates deadlocked at the old Coliseum, the decision would be made by party bosses who “will sit down about 2 o’clock in the morning around a table in a smoke-filled room.” Actually it was a suite of rooms, Rooms 804-805 of the Blackstone Hotel.
Past convention sites included the Auditorium Theatre, the Coliseum, the old Chicago Stadium and the International Amphitheatre.
It was at the Amphitheatre that FDR promised “a New Deal for the American people” in 1932 — and returned four years later to defend it. The old Coliseum was the site of William Jennings Bryan’s historic 1896 “Cross of Gold” speech.
Of course, the most notorious convention in recent history was the 1968 Democratic event, which saw the nomination of Hubert Humphrey and clashes between police and protesters later described as “a police riot.”
Complete list of major party political conventions held in Chicago
The party, presidential and vice presidential nominee and venue are listed. Nominees who went on to be elected president are marked with an asterisk (*).
1860: Republicans Abraham Lincoln* and Hannibal Hamlin at the Wigwam.
1864: Democrats George B. McClellan and George H. Pendleton at the Amphitheatre.
1868: Republicans Ulysses S. Grant* and Schuyler Colfax at Crosby’s Opera House.
1880: Republicans James A. Garfield* and Chester A. Arthur at the Exposition Hall.
1884: Republicans James G. Blaine and John A. Logan at the Exposition Hall.
1884: Democrats Grover Cleveland* and Thomas A. Hendricks at the Exposition Hall
1888: Republicans Benjamin Harrison* and Levi P. Morton at the Civic Auditorium.
1892: Democrats Grover Cleveland* and Adlai E. Stevenson at a specially constructed building.
1896: Democrats William J. Bryan and Arthur Sewall at the Coliseum.
1904: Republicans Theodore Roosevelt* and Charles W. Fairbanks at the Coliseum.
1908: Republicans William H. Taft* and James S. Sherman at the Coliseum.
1912: Republicans William H. Taft* and James S. Sherman at the Coliseum.
1916: Republican Charles E. Hughes and Charles W. Fairbanks at the Coliseum.
1920: Republicans Warren G. Harding* and Calvin Coolidge at the Coliseum.
1932: Republicans Herbert Hoover and Charles Curtis at the Chicago Stadium.
1932: Democrats Franklin D. Roosevelt* and John N. Garner at the Chicago Stadium.
1940: Democrats Franklin D. Roosevelt* and Henry A. Wallace at the Chicago Stadium.
1944: Republicans Thomas E. Dewey and John W. Bricker at the Chicago Stadium.
1944: Democrats Franklin D. Roosevelt* and Harry S Truman at the Chicago Stadium.
1952: Republicans Dwight D. Eisenhower* and Richard M. Nixon at the International Amphitheatre.
1952: Democrats Adlai E. Stevenson and John J. Sparkman at the International Amphitheatre.
1956: Democrats Adlai E. Stevenson and Estes Kefauver at the International Amphitheatre.
1960: Republicans Richard M. Nixon and Henry Cabot Lodge at the International Amphitheatre.
1968: Democrats Hubert H. Humphrey and Edmund S. Muskie at the International Amphitheatre.
1996: Democrats Bill Clinton* and Al Gore at the United Center.
