The city of Charlotte has just announced that it will be submitting a bid to host the 2020 Republican National Convention here in Charlotte.

“This is a wonderful opportunity to showcase our city, our region and our state to the world. People visiting our community will be impressed with the collaboration among our network of private sector, nonprofit and government partners to create an extraordinary experience,” said Mayor Vi Lyles in a statement.

Charlotte may have a high likelihood of winning the bid, considering our current political atmosphere and recent growth.

President Trump won North Carolina by only 3.7% back in 2016 and many think the margins will be even closer for the 2020 election. Both major political parties usually hold their conventions in swing states like North Carolina in order to sure up their base and attempt to drum up new excitement. Two years ago the Republicans held their convention in Cleveland, OH, and 4 years before that they held it in Tamps, FL – both major swing states.

Charlotte has also recently seen massive growth in hotels around Center City, meaning more Republican delegates wouldn’t have to travel as far as they did in Cleveland to attend the convention sessions.

The convention would be a huge economic boost for our city, considering that the Democratic National Convention that we hosted in 2012 had an estimated economic impact of over $163 million.

Bids for the RNC are will be due at the end of this month.

What are your thoughts on Charlotte hosting the RNC?

Yesterday, the special counsel probing interference in the last presidential election, led by Robert Mueller, charged 13 individual Russian nationals and three separate Russian groups with violating criminal laws with the intent of meddling “with U.S. elections and political processes.”

According to the Charlotte Observer, the Queen City became a key target of several of Russian operations in their attempts to disrupt the 2016 presidential election.

The Observer notes that Mueller’s 37-page indictment includes the following charges that specifically relate to Charlotte;

▪ @Ten_GOP, a Twitter account started by the Russian conspirators, which at one time attracted more than 100,000 followers, started posting phony allegations in August 2016 that voter-fraud investigations had been launched in North Carolina.

▪ After Donald Trump carried the state and was the surprise winner of the November 2016 election, Russian conspirators posing as grass-roots activists helped arrange a Nov. 19 rally in Charlotte called “Charlotte Against Trump,” which was designed to instigate discontent.

▪ The conspirators also infiltrated community groups such as Black Lives Matter. A key player in the effort was a St. Petersburg, Russia-based troll farm called Internet Research Agency, a defendant in Mueller’s indictment.

While these specific incidences were specifically addressed in the recent indictments, it’s unclear what other social media accounts and events were organized by, fueled, or shared by Russians. It’s also unclear at this time how significantly these actions affected how North Carolinians voted.

Vi Lyles took her first trip to Washington DC as mayor of Charlotte to meet with several government officials and President Donald Trump this past Monday.

The primary purpose of the trip was to deliver several key infrastructure requests to the Federal Government and to talk about how President Trump’s new $1.5 trillion infrastructure plan might affect the city of Charlotte.

I’m in DC for a couple days talking infrastructure and the support we need to build out a fully integrated transportation system that helps people connect to opportunities. #clt

— Mayor Vi Lyles (@ViLyles) February 11, 2018

According to a press release from the City of Charlotte, Lyles joined 23 other elected officials to meet with the president about his new infrastructure initiative, including other governors, mayors, state legislators, county commissioners and an agriculture commissioner.

“The citizens of Charlotte expect the mayor and City Council to work with the federal government to ensure that our transit system, highways, water and energy infrastructure are world class,” Lyles commented. “I stand ready to work with the president and the leadership of both parties on Capitol Hill in partnership to advance infrastructure legislation that creates jobs, makes getting to work easier, improves our environment and prepares our economy for the next decade and beyond.”

The president’s new plan, if approved by Congress, would eradicate the historical 50-50 model of infrastructure finance (currently, most major infrastructure plans that are approved can expect to receive 50% of their funding from the federal government).

The new proposal includes just $200 billion in federal money. And for most projects, it would require states and local agencies to come up with at least 80% of the revenue in order to get, at most, a 20% federal match. For highways, that means the White House plan would completely flip the current 80-20 federal-state funding split.

This could either mean more privately funded highway projects for the Charlotte region (like the I-77 toll lanes), higher local taxes to pay for new roads and light rail lines, or simply less new infrastructure projects in general.