Chicago to host 2024 Democratic National Convention

The Democrats are returning to “Sweet Home Chicago.”

The Democratic National Committee announced Tuesday that the Windy City will host next year’s Democratic National Convention — the 12th time party delegates will gather in Chicago to choose their presidential candidate.

“Chicago is a great choice to host the 2024 Democratic National Convention,” President Biden said in a statement released by the DNC. “Democrats will gather to showcase our historic progress including building an economy from the middle out and bottom up, not from the top down. From repairing our roads and bridges, to unleashing a manufacturing boom, and creating over 12.5 million new good-paying jobs, we’ve already delivered so much for hard working Americans – now it’s time to finish the job.”

Chicago beat out Atlanta, Houston and New York for the right to host the convention, where Biden is expected to re-nominated for a second four-year term.

The last time Chicago hosted the Democrats was in 1996, when then-President Bill Clinton was re-nominated unanimously en route to a smashing re-election victory.

Chicago has not hosted a contested convention since 1968, when the gathering was marred by street battles between anti-war protesters and police, whose “Gestapo tactics” were famously condemned from the convention stage by then-Sen. Abraham Ribicoff (D-Conn.)

The Democrats’ choice of Chicago means the 2024 conventions will be an all-Midwestern affair.

The Republicans announced in August of last year that they would hold their nominating convention in Milwaukee.

As with most big cities, Chicago is deeply Democratic.

Biden received 74.4% of the Cook County vote in the 2020 presidential election while his rival, Republican Donald Trump received 24.1%.

Chicago’s leftward tilt has carried Democrats to victory in Illinois in each of the last eight presidential election.

George H.W. Bush was the last Republican to win the Land of Lincoln, in 1988.

This is a developing story.