MIAMI — Miami has submitted a bid to host the 2028 Republican National Convention at the city’s downtown arena.
The bid comes at a time when Florida’s rightward shift stands out in the U.S. national political map, and as Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, a Republican, mulls a potential 2024 presidential bid.
Emails obtained by the Miami Herald through a public records request show the RNC invited the city to bid in July. In September, a senior adviser to Miami City Manager Art Noriega submitted the city’s first formal bid to host the event where the GOP will select its nominee for the 2028 presidential election.
RNC staffers visited Miami Oct. 6-7, said Donald Wolfe III, Noriega’s adviser. Wolfe said city administrators are working on dates for a second visit when members of the RNC selection committee will tour the area.
“From what I’ve been told, I think they’re going to make a determination next year,” Wolfe said Tuesday.
It might seem early, but the RNC is already thinking about booking a place to hold its convention six years in advance, a departure from tradition that party leadership decided earlier this year. RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel told Politico in April that it was a “smart business decision” to start planning early. Houston could contend to be host city, according to the Houston Chronicle.
Miami city officials prepared a 57-page document as its first pitch to the RNC. The package outlines the area’s hotel capacity, transportation corridors and a $77.6 million security budget to hold the convention at the Miami Heat arena on Biscayne Boulevard. The bid, submitted in September, refers to the building as FTX Arena, a name that is now in dispute following the crypto company’s public meltdown and bankruptcy, prompting Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava to try to scrap the naming rights deal.
Miami previously bid to host the 2020 Democratic National Convention, losing out to Milwaukee. In 1972, both parties chose Miami Beach to host their national conventions. There were public protests against the Vietnam War during the conventions.
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