{"id":787868,"date":"2026-03-03T00:30:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T00:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/787868\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T00:30:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T00:30:20","slug":"denver-is-one-of-five-finalists-to-host-the-2028-democratic-national-convention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/787868\/","title":{"rendered":"Denver is one of five finalists to host the 2028 Democratic National Convention"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

Denver is one of five cities that are finalists to host the Democratic National Convention in 2028, officials confirmed Monday.<\/p>\n

If the city wins its bid, it could draw tens of thousands of people to Colorado and once again put Denver at center stage as the Democratic Party races toward the next presidential election.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Colorado<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was produced as part of the Colorado Capitol News Alliance. It first appeared at denverite.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Denver last hosted the DNC in 2008, when Barack Obama accepted the nomination at the Denver Broncos\u2019 stadium ahead of his successful first presidential campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m thrilled the Democratic National Committee is considering Denver as the host city for the 2028 convention,\u201d Mayor Mike Johnston said in a statement. \u201cDenver not only offers everything a successful convention needs, but we are a shining example of how to lead America forward by dreaming big and delivering bigger.\u201d<\/p>\n

Atlanta, Boston, Chicago and Philadelphia also are front-runners, CBS News\u00a0reported Monday<\/a>, and the convention is expected to be held Aug. 7-10, 2028.<\/p>\n

Las Vegas and San Antonio also were believed to have submitted bids, CBS reported earlier.<\/p>\n

Denver\u2019s 2028 bid drew support from all of the state\u2019s Democratic lawmakers in Congress.<\/p>\n

In a December letter, they called Obama\u2019s 2008 speech \u201cone of the most iconic moments in convention history.\u201d The letter boasted about the city\u2019s sports stadiums and their close proximity to downtown, as well as a \u201cseamless connection\u201d to \u201cone of the busiest airports in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnston\u2019s announcement also included supportive comments from Gov. Jared Polis, Denver City Council President Amanda Sandoval and Democratic Party Chair Shad Murib, as well as business and labor leaders.<\/p>\n

In 2008, Denver beat out New York, the only other final-stage candidate, to host the convention. Obama accepted the nomination before some 84,000 people at Invesco Field at Mile High, now known as Empower Field at Mile High. The convention itself was held at the Pepsi Center, now known as Ball Arena.<\/p>\n

The 2008 convention also saw an anti-war concert by Rage Against the Machine at the Denver Coliseum and\u00a0a sizable protest march afterward<\/a>. The city later paid $200,000 and changed police policies to\u00a0settle a lawsuit<\/a>\u00a0over mass arrests of protesters near Civic Center park.<\/p>\n

An ABC News producer\u00a0was arrested<\/a>\u00a0for attempting to take pictures of Democratic officials as they left the Brown Palace Hotel.<\/p>\n

The convention drew\u00a0thousands of federal agents<\/a>. Denver police mobilized 1,500 officers from around the region for the response and spent $2.1 million on protective gear, $1.4 million on barricades and $850,000 on other supplies, The New York Times reported. Law enforcement often uses the events to test new technologies.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Colorado plays a different role in national politics today. <\/p>\n

At the time of the 2008 election, Democrats were still hoping to flip the state; it had gone for Republican President George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004. Democrats saw a Denver convention as a way to rally support in a \u201cpurple\u201d state. But the state has exclusively gone for Democrats in presidential campaigns in the years since.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hosting the convention would require coordinating with the Trump administration. Some Democrats have\u00a0expressed concerns<\/a>\u00a0that the federal government will not provide money and other assistance to help with security.<\/p>\n

The Democrats will likely announce the host city in the first quarter of 2027, based on the timing of previous announcements. Conventions are most often held in August of the election year, though some have been held in July or even early September.<\/p>\n

The city has never hosted a Republican National Convention, though it\u00a0made a bid and lost in 2016<\/a>.\u00a0Denver previously hosted the DNC\u00a0in 1908<\/a>, when progressive William Jennings Bryan was nominated. He lost to William Howard Taft.<\/p>\n

\"Colorado<\/p>\n

This story was produced by the Capitol News Alliance, a collaboration between KUNC News, Colorado Public Radio, Rocky Mountain PBS and The Colorado Sun, and shared with Rocky Mountain Community Radio and other news organizations across the state. Funding for the Alliance is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.<\/p>\n

Type of Story: News Service<\/p>\n

Produced externally by an organization we trust to adhere to high journalistic standards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Denver is one of five cities that are finalists to host the Democratic National Convention in 2028, officials…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":787869,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2062],"tags":[232,564,111176,231,258,32034,2426,78,7,6,4239],"class_list":{"0":"post-787868","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-denver-broncos","8":"tag-broncos","9":"tag-colorado","10":"tag-colorado-capitol-news-alliance","11":"tag-denver","12":"tag-denver-broncos","13":"tag-denver-politics","14":"tag-denverbroncos","15":"tag-donald-trump","16":"tag-football","17":"tag-nfl","18":"tag-politics"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116162425908590889","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=787868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/787869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=787868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=787868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=787868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}