by Bruce Majors
CPAC2023 was noticeably smaller than CPAC has been in previous years, with a half-empty ballroom at the Gaylord National Resort on the shores of the Potomac in Oxon Hill, Maryland. It’s CPACtrophy.
Although you could see the Masonic Temple in Old Town, Alexandria from the Gaylord, there were few Virginia politicians. Former Congressman Dave Bratt and Lt. Governor Winsome Sears made appearances. Like Florida Governor DeSantis, Governor Youngkin was not a speaker. (Lots of Virginians crossed the bridge to attend and vote in the CPAC straw poll however.) Richmond radio talk show host John Reid was spotted at an ancillary event on Capitol Hill where Trump’s Ambassador to Germany, Ric Grenell, spoke before appearing at CPAC on a panel with Democrat Jennifer Palmieri of Showtime’s The Circus.
In 2010, one of the last years CPAC was held in Washington, D.C., at the Woodley Park Marriott, 2,300 registrants voted in the CPAC presidential straw poll. CPAC’s registration kept growing, its stated reason for moving out to the Gaylord, where 3,000 registrants voted in the straw poll in 2015. After spending a few COVID lockdown years in Florida, CPAC is back at the Gaylord on the Potomac waterfront this year.
This year only 2,028 people took the straw poll. This is only a proxy for registration, as some people may not have voted. But it is only two-thirds the number who voted in 2015.
There are fewer workshops and panels outside the main hall, and the main Potomac Ballroom is noticeably half empty.
A reporter acquaintance asked me about the low attendance and whether I thought it was due to the “Schlapp scandal.” I did not see this, but according to a Washington Times article, CPAC chairman Matt Schlapp was chased through the halls Thursday morning by reporters asking him about a $9 million lawsuit against him for a sexual assault. Continue reading
