CHARLOTTE, North Carolina — What should have been a bustling city center packed with everyone who’s anyone in GOP politics, the national media, even protesters, for the 2020 Republican National Convention is instead eerily quiet this weekend.
Rather, there’s a select group of Republican officials hoping to pull off a successful pandemic-era in-person meeting that balances safety with some sense of normalcy in a general election year.
After battles with North Carolina’s Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper over how to hold the convention in Charlotte, the celebratory portion of the quadrennial event will be almost entirely virtual next week while the city still hosts the party’s annual summer meeting this weekend and official convention business on Monday.
Coronavirus precautions are stringent, the result of a health and safety plan designed by former medical director and federal security official Jeffrey Runge, a Republican National Convention special adviser. Instead of more than 2,500 delegates convening to support President Trump’s renomination, six delegates maximum from each state are allowed on Monday. Some states sent fewer than that — Wisconsin’s delegation is only four people.
The Republican National Convention meeting on Saturday and Sunday is closed to the press, and only a handful of reporters and TV crews are invited to watch convention delegates vote to renominate Trump next week.
The Westin Charlotte, where delegates and meeting attendees are staying and where business sessions are taking place, is inaccessible to outsiders. Participants completed a self-administered coronavirus test before arriving in Charlotte and then a professionally administered one upon arrival. They must fill out daily symptom tracker forms and receive a daily wristband to show they have had a temperature screening.
Each delegate is also wearing a “safety fob” — an electronic tracker that will help trace attendees who come in close contact with someone later found to be infected with COVID-19.
“The contact tracing isn’t following every step that we go,” said Theresa Thibodeau, a former Nebraska state senator. “So it doesn’t know if we’re down the street. It just knows who we’ve been around so that way if somebody does test positive, we know.”
Inside the Westin, a sign encouraged 6-foot social distancing and “elbow bumps,” indicating that handshakes and hugs are forbidden. Participants’ daytime meals came in individually packaged plastic containers.
During Saturday’s general meeting, Republican officials sat in spaced-out assigned seats at long tables. The members approved seven resolutions, including extending the party’s 2016 platform through 2024. Those who had no official business during the session, such as guests of committee members who were coronavirus-screened and permitted in the hotel, were not allowed inside the meeting room.
Republicans in attendance, for the most part, are praising the Republican National Convention’s handling of coronavirus measures.
“I think everybody feels safe with the precautions and everybody’s respecting the precautions. I know I feel more comfortable with them,” said Kyshia Lineberger, Republican National Committee committeewoman for North Carolina.
Republicans are not letting the pandemic prevent them from having some fun, though. Delegates are greeted at the Westin with a red-carpet-style photo opportunity in front of a GOP banner. Swag bags include Trump 2020-branded face masks and Charlotte convention-branded totes, buttons, and ponchos.
In the evening, chartered shuttle buses transport attendees to optional activities: the Billy Graham Library, Top Golf, Middle C Jazz Club, or a brewery just outside the city center area in the South End neighborhood.
“I feel safer here than anywhere else in the country,” said South Carolina committeeman Glenn McCall. “It’s good to show the American people, ‘Yes, we take it seriously, the pandemic, but we have to get on with our lives.’”
Nothing like LIVE conventions. Checked-in at the hotel and I found a bunch of goodies in my room. I think the Charlotte 2020 goody bag rivals Cleveland 2016 ? #RNCConvention #RNC2020 @NCGOP @GOP @NewYorkGOP ??? #KAG2020 pic.twitter.com/N5nUcwJBnc
— John Burnett (@IamJohnBurnett) August 22, 2020
Guideline-following might not be up to the standards of face mask evangelists like Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, who suggested that masks be worn even outdoors while walking a dog.
On Friday night before public access to the Westin was shut down, a few men present in the hotel lobby did not wear masks, though their connection to the RNC or the convention was not clear.
About a quarter of the attendees took off their masks once seated at their tables in the general meeting, Lineberger said, adding that was allowed.
Some photos and videos on social media show maskless participants who appeared to be less than 6-feet apart from each other.
Proud to represent the @MSGOP at this year’s RNC summer meeting and national convention. Mississippi has a long history of leadership in the @GOP. Our extraordinary national committeewoman Jeanne Luckey was appointee by @GOPChairwoman to chair the Committee on Contests. pic.twitter.com/i7Nlef49fa
— Lucien Smith (@LucienSmith) August 22, 2020
While security guards kept the top floor of the brewery booked for Republicans separate from the rowdy ground level that stayed open to the public, dozens of young, majority maskless people formed a long line outside, waiting to get into the public area.
After a police patrol drove by the brewery on Friday night, a bouncer hollered at those in the line to spread out so the establishment would not get cited for breaking local regulations. One local resident said the police presence had picked up a week or so before the Republican gathering.
Around the Republican hub, the environment is quiet, though some small protests resulted in arrests. Police officers circle the streets in groups on bicycles. Large metal fencing was being placed on Saturday around the Westin and the neighboring Charlotte Convention Center on Saturday, and some roads will be closed starting Sunday ahead of a Monday visit by Trump.
It’s not just security measures and a scaled-back delegate count contributing to the city center’s stillness. Charlotte is in phase 2 reopening, meaning masks are required, bars are closed, and restaurants can operate at 50% capacity. Some venues closest to the convention site are carry-out only or shut entirely.
Remnants from protests over racism and policing earlier in the summer remain. A few blocks from the convention center, another street is blocked off in order to preserve a Black Lives Matter road painting. A Hyatt hotel and a sports bar near the convention center still have large wooden boards covering their windows.
Tim Carney contributed to this story.
