Mayor Johnson Fires Off a Scathing Letter Accusing His Own National Party of 'Abandoning' the South and Its Core Voters After His City Is Cut From the 2028 Convention Shortlist
The party narrowed its host-city finalists to three. The mayor of one of the two cities eliminated says the party is 'afraid to leave their comfort zone.' The party says it is looking forward to a great convention
Ink = the flip (fiction). Red = real Republican · Blue = real Democrat.
DALLAS — Mayor Johnson, whose city was passed over this week for the shortlist to host his party's 2028 presidential nominating convention, responded with a letter to the party's national chairman accusing the party of abandoning the South, taking its most loyal voters for granted and being, in his words, afraid to leave its comfort zone, which is a lot to say about a hotel-room count.
The national committee announced that it had narrowed a five-city field to three finalists, all of them in the Northeast and Mountain West, eliminating the mayor's city and one other. The three survivors were praised for their facilities, their transit and, in the case of at least one, its rich base of party donors, a factor the committee did not list and the eliminated cities did not need listed.
In his letter, Mayor Johnson singled out the chairman personally and wrote that the South is the answer, a claim the South has been making to the party for several cycles and the party has been answering with conventions elsewhere. He said the party's most reliable voters were being told they were essential in October and optional in August.
Party officials said the selection was based on logistics, security and cost, and that the mayor's city had been a strong contender. The mayor said the phrase 'strong contender' is what the party says to cities it does not choose, and that his city had been a strong contender before.
"We are grateful for every city that bid," the national committee said, in a statement that named the three cities it was more grateful for.
The Press's convention desk notes that a mayor blasting his own party's committee is 'a leader demanding respect for his region' when he is yours and 'a party in disarray' when he is theirs, and that the convention hall is the same size either way. At press time the balloon drop had been reassigned, and the letter had been forwarded to the chairman's comfort zone.
📜 The Receipts
What actually happened: Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens blasted the Democratic National Committee after Atlanta was eliminated from the 2028 convention host shortlist, which the DNC narrowed Thursday to Boston, Denver and Philadelphia from a five-city pool that also included Chicago. In a letter singling out DNC Chair Ken Martin, Dickens accused the party of 'abandoning' Black voters and the South, saying they are 'taken for granted' and that the party is 'afraid to leave their comfort zone and blind to the fact that the South is the answer.'