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Utah’s Democratic delegates are slotted to stay in a hotel more than 60 miles from their party’s presidential convention

In this Oct. 31, 2017 photo, the downtown skyline over looks Lake Michigan in Milwaukee. The Democratic National Committee has selected Milwaukee to host the 2020 national convention. (Mike De Sisti/Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel via AP)

Utah delegates to next year’s Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee have been assigned to overnight accommodations in an adjoining state, more than 60 miles from the convention hall.

The state’s delegation will be staying in Lake County, Ill., along with groups from Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, New Mexico, North Carolina, Northern Marianas and Pennsylvania, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. Utah’s isn’t the worst hotel placement — some state delegations are slated to stay about 20 miles farther out — but it’s far from the best.

The convention will take place July 13-16 at Fiserv Forum, the new 17,500-seat home of the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks.

The Democratic National Committee assigned Utah’s 35 delegates and two alternates to an Embassy Suites in Deerfield, about 60 miles and an hour’s drive from the hub of activity, said Nadia Mahallati, vice chairwoman of the Utah Democratic Party.

Delegates will be bused to and from Fiserv Forum each day, Mahallati said.

National party leaders are “assuring us that the distances are fine,” she added, explaining that organizers prioritized keeping state delegates in hotels together and had to look farther afield to find large blocks of rooms.

Charles A. Stormont, Utah’s DNC national committeeman, said he’s grateful party leaders figured out lodging arrangements so far in advance of next year’s big event.

“Being an hour away for something of this size, for me, is not even a little bit surprising,” he said. “It’s to be expected. ... I’m excited to know where we’re staying and to be able to start planning this far out.”

Thirty-one of the delegations attending the convention will be staying in the Milwaukee area, while another 26 will staying in northern Illinois hotels, according to the Journal Sentinel. Delegates will occupy nearly 3,000 hotel rooms in Wisconsin and about 2,840 rooms in Illinois, the paper reported.

Utah House Minority Leader Brian King laughed upon learning that the state’s delegates would be staying in Illinois.

“Utah among Democrats is probably not in the top five, not even in the top 10 states in terms of how it’s perceived by Democrats,” the Salt Lake City Democrat said.

Utah has not voted for a Democrat for president since Lyndon Johnson in 1964 and has given Republicans their biggest margins of victory in seven of the past 11 presidential elections.

The newly assigned hotel for 2020 is believed to be the farthest from the convention hall that Utah Democrats have been placed in many years. In 2000, Utah delegates were assigned by convention organizers lodging about an hour and a half from the Los Angeles Staples Center, where Al Gore accepted the nomination. But Utahns arranged for their own closer accommodations in El Segundo, about a 40-minute drive from downtown LA.

Some delegates will have it even harder than Utah — Texas delegates are slated to stay in a hotel that’s more than 80 miles from Fiserv Forum, according to the Austin American-Statesman.

National Democrats chose Milwaukee for the 2020 convention over Houston and Miami, despite concerns that the Wisconsin city’s hotel inventory couldn’t accommodate the massive influx of people, POLITICO reported.

Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez told party members that the location choice “emphasizes the importance of the heartland and the strength of a diverse community working together,” according to POLITICO.

Holding the Democratic gathering in Wisconsin is a strategic move, said Stormont, noting that it was one of the battleground Rust Belt states that President Donald Trump claimed in 2016.

“Wisconsin," he said, “is a critically important state in winning the Electoral College.”