Atlanta mayor responds to DNC not putting city on 2028 convention shortlist: "Afraid to leave their comfort zone"

Mayor Andre Dickens has some choice words for the Democratic Party leaders after they took Atlanta out of the running to be the host city for their 2028 presidential convention.

On Thursday, Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin announced that the party has narrowed down its list to three finalists: Boston, Denver, and Philadelphia.

Martin said in a statement the cities put forward "incredibly strong bids," and he promised the convention would be an "inspiring celebration of our party's future nominee."

Off the list were Atlanta and Chicago, which hosted the convention in 2024. The last time the party held its convention in Atlanta was in 1988, when the party selected former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis as its candidate. 

Earlier this year, party officials visited Atlanta and the other four cities in the running, considering logistical and fundraising capacity among other factors. The party didn't specify why the two cities were eliminiated.

In a letter obtained by CBS News Atlanta, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens criticized the party for not including Atlanta on the shortlist, saying that it appears like "the DNC does not consider Atlanta or Georgia relevant to the past, present, and future of the Democratic Party."

"Yet again, the DNC and Chairman Ken Martin have shown that they are unwilling to do the bare minimum to support the base of the party. Atlanta is the crown jewel of the Southeast, the Black economic engine of the country, and the cradle of the civil rights movement," Dickens wrote. "They are afraid to leave their comfort zone and blind to the fact that the South is the answer. They are abandoning Atlanta, abandoning the South, and once again abandoning Black voters."

The mayor noted that the party has not chosen a Southern city in more than a decade. Since Atlanta hosted in 1988, only one city in the South has been chosen by the DNC: Charlotte, North Carolina in 2012. 

"This isn't by accident," Dickens wrote. "It's an intentional choice."

He said that Martin and DNC leadership were "running scared" and chose to "retreat to their safe spaces."

The Democratic convention is scheduled for Aug. 7-10, 2028. Republicans have already chosen Houston for the site of their 2028 convention.