DNC in Chicago saw higher-income ZIP codes get the most Democratic convention host committee spending

The committee hosting the 2024 Democratic National Convention spent money in 54 of Chicago’s 67 ZIP codes, according to a Chicago Sun-Times analysis of its recent report to the Federal Election Commission.

Topping the list in Chicago at $15 million in direct spending — of $83 million spent nationwide — was the 60612 West Side ZIP code encompassing the United Center, which hosted four nights of political speeches and programming aimed at firing up Democratic voters to elect Vice President Kamala Harris. That sum includes costs for producing the event — a four-night television show — and building out the United Center for the convention.

But around the United Center, spending in the white-majority ZIP codes flanking 60612 was vastly higher than in Black- and Latino-majority ones. The next highest spending within city borders went to ZIP codes near the United Center that already boast some of Chicago’s highest average incomes: The Loop’s 60606 and 60601, and the West Loop’s 60607.

The committee spent very little directly in Chicago’s ZIP codes with the lowest average incomes — and in Englewood’s 60621, home of the very lowest, only one business was paid by the host committee. That was $235 to Kusanya Cafe, 825 W. 69th St., a small, nonprofit cafe and hub for the surrounding Black community far from the convention.

“We're not on the beaten path of any of that,” says cafe director Phil Sipka. “I'm not surprised we're the only ones in the ZIP code. There's not a lot of accessible, average middle-class restaurants for that type of people.”

But unlike many other small businesses, Sipka says he wasn’t looking for a convention bump.

“We wouldn’t be able to handle a really big order,” he says. “We're pretty locally focused. We're not really a catering company. If it comes to us, great…They sought us out. I'm glad they were reaching out and looking for an Englewood neighborhood place. Because we don't deliver either.”

Of the $83 million reported in expenditures by the host committee, Development Now for Chicago, a total of $49 million was paid to Chicago-based businesses. Another $7 million went to firms based elsewhere in Illinois. The committee was funded by contributions mainly from individuals, including Gov. JB Pritzker and members of his family, labor unions, companies and Democratic political groups.

The Sun-Times analysis also found:

• The second largest cash payment, $14 million, went to Kirschner Events, the Los Angeles-based production company founded by Ricky Kirschner that staged the four nights of the “show.”
• Third on the list overall was Show Strategy, a Black-owned company at 355 N. Canal St. in 60606, for $6.6 million of exposition services.
• Among the smallest spending in Chicago? 60633 on the far Southeast Side and 60655 on the Far Southwest Side, which each saw a single restaurant order for about $400. 

In the run-up to the convention, the host committee ran a variety of programs to steer business and contracts to Chicago’s underserved communities, with its executive director Christy George naming “making a positive impact in all 77 neighborhoods” one of the core goals.

The reality, however, was that the spending needed for the four convention days at the United Center dwarfed the cash flowing to Chicago’s neighborhoods.

Natalie Edelstein Jarvis, a spokesperson for the now disbanded host committee, says the “Host Committee never said it would spend equally across all community areas.”

Edelstein Jarvis says the committee instead hosted “engagement activities” in all 77 Chicago community areas, defining engagement as "any activity that leaves a positive impact on the local community” including hiring local vendors and local workers, hosting events for media or hospitality or civic engagement or beautification, and soliciting volunteers.

As an example, she noted that the committee paid for murals along the CTA Green Line, designed and painted by Gertie, a women-owned business in Chicago.

“Despite the fact that we had staff in neighborhoods across the city, they will all show up as payments in the 60612 ZIP code,” says Edelstein Jarvis, adding that several of the out of state companies also hired local subcontractors.

Choose Chicago, the sales and marketing organization in charge of promoting the city, says in a recent study it commissioned that the convention benefited the city well beyond the direct spending by organizers. 

The DNC generated $162.5 million in operational spending, $58.7 million in spending by convention visitors and millions more in other projected “indirect spending,” according to the study, and about 47% of the host committee's discretionary spending went to goods and services provided by businesses owned by women, minorities and veterans.