One year from the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, organizers trying to reach historic $90 million goal
A year is an awfully long time to spend planning a party. Unless you’re trying to drum up $90 million to pay for it.
Chicago’s turn in the national spotlight hosting the Democratic National Convention starts in fewer than 365 days. Organizers hosting the event are already looking ahead to the made-for-TV gala, and have begun leaning on corporations and wealthy donors in Illinois and across the nation to help cover the costs.
For Chicago Democrats and Gov. J.B. Pritzker, it’s time to deliver on their promise that they can come up with the cash they pledged to finance the spectacle that will unfold between Aug. 19 and Aug. 22, 2024, at the United Center and McCormick Place.
Pritzker — who promised the Democratic National Committee the convention would be debt-free as a selling point when Chicago was vying against New York and Atlanta to host it — sounded confident recently about the cash flow trajectory and the overall convention vibes.
Amid concerns his own personal wealth would give other potential Democratic donors alligator arms as they wait for him to pick up the convention tab, the billionaire governor said lots of people are cutting checks, and that won’t be a problem.
“Fundraising is going very well. It is,” Pritzker said at the recent Illinois State Fair. “I’ve made some of those calls. I can tell you. Things are going very well. We’re pleased. We know what pace we’ve got to be on to meet the deadline. I am absolutely satisfied.”
Although DNC officials would not say exactly how much they’ve raised so far, many involved in putting on the convention acknowledge there’s still quite a way to go to get to the goal of a little over $90 million.
Bob Reiter, president of the Chicago Federation of Labor and a key Democratic ally, said that while the total amount needed is large, individual donors want to be able to say they were in on the convention.
“People across the board know how important this upcoming election is going to be,” Reiter said. “They also want to be part of what’s going to be an incredible economic event for the city of Chicago that’s really going to put the city on display.”
A person close to the convention organizing effort said donors have been “stepping up,” and fundraising will ramp up after Labor Day.
The donations so far have come from a broad base of contributors locally and across the country, said the convention official, who declined to be identified because the person was not authorized to speak on the matter. The moves further boost the feeling among organizers they will reach their goal, even though everyone involved knows $90 million will be “a big lift” and all involved need to continue to keep the fundraising pressure on until they get there.
People have been contributing regardless of the governor’s wealth, which has been a non-factor in the fundraising drive, just as it was in convincing the Democratic National Committee to select Chicago for the once-every-four-years event, the convention leader said.
Rather, Democrats want to be in Chicago because the city and the state of Illinois exemplify the diversity and the policy priorities the party wants to highlight in the presidential election, the official said.
Still, the task is daunting.
The $90 million target for Chicago 2024 is unprecedented. When Chicago last hosted the Democrats, in 1996, organizers raised a total of around $32 million, a mix of corporate cash and in-kind donations, and contributions from the city and state.
In Philadelphia in 2016 — the last presidential election year in which the party conventions were in-person before the COVID-19 pandemic caused the 2020 festivities to go virtual — the Democratic convention committee raised around $70 million. About $10 million of that came in the form of a grant from the state of Pennsylvania.
And Democrats this year are desperate to avoid the financial shortfall of the Charlotte 2012 convention, when the host committee raised $24 million, then had to borrow $8 million afterward from an energy company to cover additional costs.
Meanwhile, Republicans, who on Friday announced Houston would host the party’s 2028 convention, are shooting to raise around $70 million for their 2024 convention in Milwaukee.
The discrepancy in part can be attributed to higher costs in Chicago. Democrats also pledged to use union labor to set up and run the convention at the United Center and McCormick Place, as well as at hotels where conventioneers stay, with national and local Democratic officials joining Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson here last month to herald the signing of the labor-peace agreement to showcase their allies in labor. Those across-the-board union wages will drive up the bottom line.
Yet for Chicagoans in neighborhoods that have long struggled — particularly parts of the West Side in the shadow of the United Center — the fear remains that they’ll get left out.
They worry the big party to nominate President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for a second term will descend for four days next August, then depart without giving them a shot at a share of the host convention funds that go toward paying companies and their employees to build the convention sets, host parties and transport delegates, set up the technology infrastructure for the media frenzy, put up tens of thousands of attendees in hotels and lease offices for the many Democratic functionaries who will run the event.
Chicago officials have pledged to make it a top priority to get West Side residents a seat at the convention table. Promising to help underserved Chicagoans see some of the money makes political sense at this point in the planning process — however, it likely will remain unclear how well the Democrats delivered on that promise until after they’ve left town.
Johnson has made his residency in the West Side Austin neighborhood central to his identity as a mayor who’s committed to lifting up communities that have long gotten short shrift.
At the signing of the convention labor-peace agreement with union leaders and Democratic Party officials, Johnson said the convention in particular presents an opportunity to help Chicagoans in majority Black and Latino communities who’ve frequently been shafted, because everyone associated with the event is “committed to making sure that neighborhoods that have experienced … disinvestment … that there is real assurance with the execution of our agreement.”
Late last week, Johnson reiterated that to take advantage of the convention platform and show Chicago is a world-class city “means we must look for every possible opportunity to integrate all of Chicago, and every corner of this city, into this convention. Thankfully, there is alignment among all of us stakeholders — including longtime friends of Chicago at the Democratic National Committee in Washington — to uplift and highlight our great city,” he said in a statement to the Tribune.
U.S. Rep. Danny Davis, who represents much of the West Side, has pledged he and other members of Illinois’ Washington delegation will press the Democratic National Committee to secure Black businesses don’t get left behind when contracts and jobs are awarded ahead of the event.
Convention Chair and Chicago native Minyon Moore added her voice to the chorus Thursday, issuing a statement promising “we’re committed to ensuring communities across Chicago feel as though they are a part of the 2024 Democratic National Convention.”
“As someone who grew up on Chicago’s Southside and have worked with many community leaders on the Westside, I understand the opportunity this poses, particularly for communities that have been underserved,” Moore said. “The Democratic Party believes in equity and opportunity, and we’re bringing those values with us to Chicago.”
But there have been precious few specifics, and the clock is ticking. August 2024 will be here in no time at all.
Chicago Tribune’s Jeremy Gorner contributed.
