The American Conservative Union announced today that their Conservative Political Action Conference is still on, but it’ll be held in a different location. The Gaylord National in Maryland is where the conference has been held the past few years, but COVID restrictions have shuttered the location. Instead, the ACU said they’re taking the nation’s largest gathering of conservatives to Orlando, Florida. It’s the first time this gathering will be held outside of the nation’s capital. This year’s conference will remain in-person, albeit with “virtual components,” according to Fox News:
Fox News learned on Tuesday that the conference will be held the Hyatt Regency in Orlando, Fla., from Feb. 25-28.
The conference, first launched in 1974, has always been held either in or around Washington, D.C. For the past eight years, the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in Maryland, just outside of the District of Columbia, has been CPAC's home. But the massive resort remains closed amid the worst pandemic to strike the globe in a century.
Organizers tell Fox News that the event, which last year attracted nearly 20,000 people over its four days, will be held mostly indoors, with plenty of virtual components, at the Hyatt Regency, a 1,641-room hotel that is connected to the Orange County, Fla., convention center.
"For the first time ever, our annual CPAC meeting is moving outside of DC to Orlando, Florida," American Conservative Union chairman Matt Schlapp said in a statement.
Florida is one of roughly a dozen states without a mask mandate amid the coronavirus. The state recommends but does not require face coverings for the general public. Orange Country, where CPAC will be held, does require masks be worn on public places. But Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida has prevented counties and cities from fining people for not wearing masks.
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