People planning to visit Milwaukee for next year’s Democratic National Convention may need to settle for a stay in the scenic village of Rosemont near O’Hare International Airport, party officials confirmed Tuesday.
Lodging is just one logistical challenge organizers face when assembling an enormous gathering to select the Democratic challenger to President Donald Trump in the 2020 election. There are only so many hotels to go around in a given area.
That means Rosemont is listed on a plan for potential DNC convention accommodations, as well as other hotels in the region surrounding Milwaukee.
It’s not yet clear which party delegates will stay in the Chicago suburbs next July. A lodging plan has been floated to delegates this week, a party spokesman said, but has not been finalized.
Illinois’ delegates will be staying in Waukesha, Maura Possley, a spokeswoman for the Democratic Party of Illinois, said in an email.
“We see this as a regional convention designed to engage with communities that will be critical in taking back the White House,” said Brandon Gassaway, a spokesman for the Democratic National Committee.
Traffic could present one problem. Rosemont is about 80 miles south of Milwaukee, in a part of the region known for its gridlock at peak travel times.
“The DNC is exploring rooms throughout the region, some of which are outside the greater Milwaukee area and outside the rooms that Visit Milwaukee has already committed to the convention,” said Kristin Settle, a spokeswoman for the city’s tourism bureau.
“This has happened in other cities. It’s not uncommon and it’s part of the DNC’s overall housing platform,” Settle said.
The party downplayed the potential for a rush-hour crawl to Wisconsin.
Two-thirds of convention delegates will stay within a 45-minute drive of Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum downtown, the DNC said. The party also said delegates who stay in Rosemont would still have shorter drive times than the commutes far-flung delegates faced at past Democratic conventions in Philadelphia and Charlotte. The farthest hotel grouping is still about 20 minutes closer to Milwaukee than Madison, the party said.
“Democrats selected Milwaukee to host our convention because Wisconsin and the region are critical to our top priority: defeating Trump and electing our eventual nominee to the White House in 2020,” national convention committee CEO Joe Solmonese said in a statement.
In an email to national committee members this week, DNC chair Tom Perez said the party already had secured 17,000 hotel rooms in the area — and that individual delegations would be able to stay together in one hotel.
That’s part of an accelerated hotel assignment process partly meant to cut down on costs and offer extra time for delegates to plan their trips.
Chicago Tribune’s Rick Pearson contributed.
Twitter @PerezJr
