Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said he will skip this summer’s 2020 Republican National Convention because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“I’m not going to go. And I’m not going to go because of the virus situation.” Grassley, 86, told journalists on a call Monday, per The Des Moines Register.
Grassley said he’d attended every previous Republican convention throughout his 40-year career in the Senate, reported the Register.
The GOP’s 2020 convention was initially slated to take place at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, from Aug. 24 to Aug. 27.
Republicans moved the majority of the event to Jacksonville, Florida, after North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) and Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles (D) refused to relax social distancing measures aimed at curbing the spread of the virus that’s now killed more than 130,000 in the U.S.
However, record numbers of people in Florida have tested positive for COVID-19 in the last week and Jacksonville has been forced to toughen its public safety measures, mandating people to wear masks in public.
A scaled-back version of the Democratic National Convention will take place from Aug. 17 to Aug. 20 in Milwaukee.
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