2021 CPAC to be held in person in Florida

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Exclusive: The American Conservative Union says it will hold the 2021 Conservative Political Action Conference in person amid the coronavirus pandemic.

And for the first time ever, the largest and most influential annual gathering of conservatives that’s best known as CPAC, will be held far from the nation’s capital.

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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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Schlapp praised DeSantis, saying in the statement, "In addition to being a model on how to run a clean election without widespread illegal voting, thanks to Gov. Ron DeSantis' (ACUF Lifetime Rating: 99%) commonsense leadership, Florida has kept its economy, schools, and churches open – while balancing the health and safety of Floridians." 

"CPAC believes that Florida is the right state to host CPAC 2021," he emphasized.

President Trump hugs the American flag as he arrives to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC 2019, in Oxon Hill, Md., on March 2, 2019. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

American Conservative Union communications director Ian Walters highlighted to Fox News that “we believe that we can host this event in a safe and responsible way” and noted that “we intend to abide by the regulations put forth” by the state of Florida and Orange County.

He noted that his group was on the road for the second half of this year, holding a “really ambitious” CPAC tour of events in battleground states and didn’t experience any COVID outbreaks.

Approximately 285,000 people across the nation have died across the since the virus swept the nation in February and March, with roughly 15 million cases of COVID-19.

Most of the country has experience a surge in new cases over the past six weeks. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned against large indoor public gatherings where social distancing is impossible amid the pandemic.

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CPAC's 2020 conference, held as the coronavirus was beginning to spread across the country, made headlines after the event was over, when a doctor who attended the gathering and had VIP access was diagnosed with COVID-19. The conference concluded two weeks before President Trump declared the coronavirus a national emergency.