JULY 15, 2022 — Partial success!  So many local Nashville Metro Councilmembers publicly opposed hosting the 2024 Republican Convention in Nashville its sponsor, Robert Swope, withdrew the legislation at the July 5 meeting rather than bring it to a vote. (Swope is a highly partisan Republican who served on Donald Trump's payroll for more than a year.)

Predictably, the reaction from Republicans has been intense.  They're currently exploring a special session in the TN Legislature to punish Nashville for rejecting the Convention. Unfortunately, as we all know, they have a long history of disrespecting our city's voters through everything from overturning our legislation to taking away seat in the US Congress. But it is in their power to do extreme things that would affect everyone who lives here, which is why it's more important than ever that your Councilmembers hear from you with a message that they should continue to stand up to TNGOP's bullying. 

We're told Swope will likely bring the bill forward again, likely on August 2. He's got a new editorial in the Tennessean which puts forward a number of questionable assertions. A credible study shows the $200 million figure Nashville would allegedly receive is likely highly inflated and the contract itself plainly states that Nashville would need to pay for expenses related to security and traffic control.  Do we really trust Donald Trump, of all people, to see that our city is reimbursed for costs which would run into the tens of millions?  Also, Nashville would have to cancel three previously scheduled conventions and the lost business plus funding to turn downtown essentially into an armed camp would likely run around $100 million. 

Swope also relies heavily on the assertion that hosting this event would promote Nashville's reputation, which is absurd.  We don't need a GOP Convention to draw tourists here, and if anything this Convention will injure Nashville as Donald Trump uses the reputation our heavily Democratic residents have worked to create to market nationalism and white supremacy. Most importantly Swope's piece completely dismisses the very legitimate concerns of Nashvillians who see what today's GOP is capable of in living color through the #January6Hearings. These people would be staying restriction free in the abundance of short term rental properties throughout our city since TNGOP overturned Nashville's common sense legislation to regulate them. 

Late breaking news: An RNC site selection committee has evidently recommended Milwaukee as the site of the Convention. But this is NOT a done deal. The RNC itself has to approve the plan at a meeting in August. Make those calls y'all!

***** Our spreadsheet HERE contains the phone and email information for all our local electeds and decisionmakers.  CALL & EMAIL NOW! *****

JUNE 25, 2022 — Nashville is now one of only two cities in final consideration for the 2024 GOP Convention. With recent presentations of the January 6th Committee in the U.S. House providing Americans with a bounty of evidence that Trump supporters include a cabal of violent criminals with no respect for our country's traditions and laws, now more than ever we would discourage any discussion of holding this event on Nashville city streets.

On July 5th Metro Council will begin discussion of legislation that would commit city resources to the Convention.  TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE.  Contact your elected leaders TODAY.  

JAN 4, 2022 — On December 26th, 2021 local news reported that Nashville's Convention and Visitors Bureau had submitted a request to host Donald Trump's 2024 GOP Convention in Nashville - with ZERO input from city residents, and we suspect without the knowledge of many if not most of our local elected officials. (The CVB is run by unelected, unaccountable folks paid by an organization mostly funded by public money. Its head, Butch Spyridon, earns more than Nashville's police chief, fire chief and head of our public health department. CVB theoretically has to have actions approved by our electeds, but it seems like that doesn't happen with much regularity.) 

A fig leaf was offered with the promise the same proposal would be made to the Democratic Convention, but Democratic consideration letters went out last June - so the promise likely isn't real. The RNC convention bid request was made by TN's Republican state Governor, Bill Lee, who lost his election bid in Nashville by more than 30 percentage points. Lee shouldn't get to call the shots in our city - which along with similarly Democratic Memphis, pays hundreds of millions of dollars to TN in sales and other taxes every year despite near-total oppression of our residents' desires by TN's GOP leadership. It's telling the Republican congregation which apparently proposed the Nashville convention idea concocted its plan in Brentwood, a city that isn't even in Davidson County. 

NASHVILLE DOES NOT WANT THIS CONVENTION. For a million different reasons, not the least that our city voted for Hillary Clinton by 27 points and Joe Biden by 32. Nashville hasn't elected a Republican to Congress - our only citywide partisan election - since Reconstruction in the 1870s.  

This bid would require local public resources from use of our roads to police protection to insurance against public chaos on city streets. Is the sight of armed police and Proud Boys clashing with city residents on national television what Butch Spyridon has in mind when he talks about Nashville's "family friendly" image?  The entire idea is preposterous. 

Call the Mayor's office, your local Metro Councilmember, and the Convention and Visitors Bureau to say NO NASHVILLE GOP CONVENTION in 2024!
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***** Contact Info for Local Officials:  Our spreadsheet HERE contains the phone and email information for all our local electeds and decisionmakers.  CALL & EMAIL NOW! *****

OUTTAKES FROM ORIGINAL 2020 PETITION FOLLOWS:

This week the Tennessean posted a series of articles pushing the idea of a Nashville GOP Convention.  Here's just one calling Nashville a "serious contender" to take on the Republican event rejected by North Carolina because Trump and the GOP are insisting on no masks or social distancing.  Gov. Bill Lee toured Lower Broadway Friday June 5th with RNC representatives (and threaded the needle between two #BlackLivesMatter protests in the area which drew tens of thousands of protesters.)

COVID concerns come in addition to the considerable risk of violence to our city employees, residents, public and private property from a GOP apparatus which seems to think nothing of using any means necessary to clear peaceful protests.  Trump has already tear gassed peaceful protestors and threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act, which our Republican governor could approve to roll U.S. Army tanks down Nashville city streets to quiet opposition.  

All this said, we're not quite at red alert status yet.  We're told calls to electeds are running heavily NO, and several Metro Councilmembers have signed onto CM Colby Sledge's announced resolution to say NO to the Convention.  Mayor Cooper has said that financial and COVID concerns have made him unreceptive to the Convention.  Also, other cities such as Orlando, Las Vegas and Savannah are still in the mix.

But pressure still is coming from Republicans in the Legislature, none of whom live in Nashville, and from Republican Gov. Bill Lee's office. He knows he won't get votes in liberal Nashville so he doesn't much care what we think, and he has financial and regulatory tools in his arsenal to try to force leverage on Nashville electeds to do his bidding. 

Proponents point to the tax revenue which would be generated by the event, but they've issued no specifics.  Also, events like this are hugely expensive.  Charlotte was asked to commit $70 MILLION in their original 2018 bid.

The Republicans want to use city-owned Bridgestone Arena and Music City Center for the event itself, and have asked cities to use similar venues free of charge in the past.  Which means we'd pay for the security, sanitation and other personnel it takes to run those venues.  Police overtime alone would likely run into millions.  Would that money be reimbursed?

We estimate several city blocks around Bridgestone Arena would have to be blocked off for at least a few days due to clashes between law enforcement and protestors.  Who'd reimburse the affected business owners as well as others who'd suffer from the traffic and other major disruptions this event would cause?  (With all our law enforcement downtown, who'd respond to domestic violence and other calls?)  Who'd reimburse for public and private property which easily could be damaged by protests?  This Convention speech would be Trump's marquee event for the year.  

In November 2016 Nashville voted AGAINST Donald Trump by almost 30 percentage points.  This is OUR city.  WE should get to decide who hosts an unmasked, unsocially distanced major event and brings the potential of unprecedented clashes between police and protestors to our streets.

Find real time updates on the Twitter hashtag #NoNashvilleGOPConvention or on our Twitter account at @NashvilleResist.