Milwaukee, Nashville, Salt Lake city battle to host 2024 Republican National Convention

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With Pittsburgh officially out of the running, Milwaukee, Nashville, and Salt Lake City are the final three contenders to host the GOP’s 2024 national convention, where the Republican Party will formally crown its presidential nominee in the next White House race.

The Republican National Committee’s (RNC) site selection committee heads to Nashville in a week, as Tennessee’s capital city makes its case to host the event.

Salt Lake City showed off its facilities to the site selection committee at the beginning of the month, when the RNC this year held its annual winter meeting in Utah’s capital.

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This past week, Milwaukee got its chance to make its case, as the committee members made the rounds in battleground Wisconsin’s largest city.

RNC officials were accompanied by former two-term conservative Gov. Scott Walker as they toured the city. Also on site was former longtime RNC chair Reince Priebus, who served as first White House chief of staff during former President Donald Trump’s administration. Sources tell Fox News it’s likely Priebus, a Wisconsinite, will chair the host committee if Milwaukee lands the convention.

Priebus told Fox News earlier this month that Milwaukee would be a great choice not only because it "doesn’t get any better than" summer in Wisconsin, but also because the city’s "a little bit more turnkey" than its rivals for the convention.

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Walker, speaking with Milwaukee's Fox6 following the Wednesday and Thursday meeting with RNC officials, said that he "heard a great buzz from folks today that VISIT Milwaukee did a fabulous job."

Priebus said on a local radio interview that Milwaukee officials "put on such an incredible show."

But the RNC pushed back against speculation that Milwaukee is in the driver’s seat to land the convention.

"There are three great cities in the running to host the Republican National Convention and each has submitted a strong, competitive bid. Our committee members are in the process of completing site visits to all of them and no decision has been made on which will host," RNC senior adviser Richard Walters said. "We look forward to continuing the bidding process and delivering an incredible convention."

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The RNC says the final decision on the host city will be announced at their summer meeting, in early August.

Potential 2024 GOP candidates defend NH’s primary position 

Four potential 2024 Republican White House hopefuls will headline an upcoming fundraiser to help New Hampshire keep its cherished century old first-in-the-nation presidential primary position.

New Hampshire has held the first-in-the-nation presidential primary for a century. A sign outside the state capitol in Concord, NH marks the state's treasured primary status. (Fox News )

Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who was the runner-up in the 2016 GOP nomination race, Sen. Rick Scott of Florida, the National Republican Senatorial Committee chair, Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina – whom pundits considered potential 2024 GOP presidential hopefuls – are all on the host committee of the event, according to an invitation obtained by Fox News.

The soiree, named the "Defending the First in the Nation Primary Cocktail Reception and Fundraiser," will be held on March 30th at the Capitol Hill home of Ron Kaufman, the RNC treasurer and longtime committee member from Massachusetts. Also hosting the event is New Hampshire Republican State Committee chair Steve Stepanek.

RNC chair Ronna McDaniel, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, and Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who made numerous stops in New Hampshire during his unsuccessful bid for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination, are also on the host committee.

Word of the fundraising event was first reported by Politico.

The entire RNC will vote at the summer meeting on their 2024 presidential nominating calendar.

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The party’s Presidential Nominating Process Committee unanimously passed a report during the winter meeting that recommends making no changes to the top of the primary and caucus calendar. 

The panel was headed by Jeff Kaufmann, chair of the GOP of Iowa, the state whose caucuses have kicked off both parties' primary and caucus calendar for half a century. Also sitting on the committee was Stepanek, as well as the chairs from South Carolina and Nevada, the other two early carve out states that vote third and fourth on the GOP calendar.

Fox News' Lee Ross contributed to this report