A story by The Charlotte Observer on closed-door city council meetings shows how close the city came to turning away the Republican National Convention.
The Observer reports that council members and Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles held two closed-session meetings before voting 6-5 to support hosting the 2020 convention. The Republican National Committee then chose Charlotte over Las Vegas on Friday.
The paper says Democrat LaWana Mayfield was alone at first in opposing the convention.
Republican Ed Driggs says Mayfield stated her case quite well, but no one immediately backed her up. He says that "if there had been more people like her against this from the beginning, we wouldn't have gone for it."