The US Democratic Party announced Tuesday that it would hold its 2024 convention in Chicago, the site of its violence-marred 1968 gathering.
The Democratic National Committee said the convention, where it will officially choose its 2024 presidential nominee, will take place from August 19-22, nearly 11 weeks before the election.
The state of Illinois along with neighboring Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota “were crucial to the 2020 victory of President (Joe) Biden and Vice President (Kamala) Harris and to Democrats’ success in the 2022 midterm elections,” the DNC said.
Chicago was also the political base of former president Barack Obama, the country’s first and only African American leader.
When Democrats met in Chicago in 1968, thousands of protestors against the Vietnam war flocked to the city aiming to disrupt the convention.
They were met by a massive force of police, and violent clashes between the two sides over four days placed a cloud over the party ahead of the election, eventually won by Republican Richard Nixon.
The Democrats met again in Chicago in 1996 for a controversy-free convention that saw President Bill Clinton nominated for reelection and then go on to win.
Sixteen months ahead of next year’s gathering, 80-year-old President Biden has not yet officially declared he would run for reelection.
“I plan on running now but we’re not prepared to announce it yet,” Biden teased on Monday.
The choice of Chicago immediately drew negative comments from Republicans about the city’s high level of gun violence, with 134 people killed so far this year, according to a Chicago Sun Times count.
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