No major Republican contenders have announced that they will seek the presidential nomination in 2016, but eight cities are officially in the running to throw the party for the nominee.
Three of them are in Ohio, a perennial swing state. None of them are on the coasts.
Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, tweeted the list of contenders on Thursday:
Each city will make its case to the party’s selection committee in Washington on Monday. That task may have been made simpler for the Phoenix delegation, after Gov. Jan Brewer’s veto on Wednesday of a bill that was perceived as allowing discrimination against gays and lesbians on religious grounds. A spokesman for the Republican National Committee said Ms. Brewer’s deliberations on the matter had no bearing on the timing of the announcement or convention process.
Las Vegas has waged one of the most aggressive campaigns, with casino titans like Sheldon G. Adelson and Stephen A. Wynn backing the city’s bid.
Republicans spent a muggy, hurricane-threatened week in Tampa, Fla., in 2012, so the bids from Denver, Phoenix, Las Vegas and Dallas suggest that delegates and reporters might be in for a dry-heat convention in 2016. But no matter which city the Republicans choose, the biggest difference from 2012 might be the timing: The Republican National Committee announced last month that the convention would most likely be held as early as June rather than in late summer, which is the tradition.
After site visits, the selection committee is expected to select finalists in the late spring, with a full committee vote in the late summer or fall.
The deadline for bids for the Democrats’ convention is Saturday.
