Las Vegas is a contender!

Las Vegas is in the running, baby!

The Republican National Committee today cut two cities from the eight contenders for the 2016 Republican convention: Phoenix and Columbus, Ohio will not be considered.

But Las Vegas will, along with Kansas City, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dallas and Denver.

Here’s the official statement from Enid Mickelsen, the chairwoman of the RNC’s site selection committee and a former congresswoman from neighboring Utah:

“After a painstaking review, I’m pleased to announce that six cities have moved on to the next round of consideration for the 2016 Republican National Convention. The eyes of the world will be on the RNC and our host city in the summer of 2016, and these six cities have shown they have what it takes to move forward.

“In any other year, Columbus and Phoenix could have topped the list, but with so many strong cities competing, the committee had to make the difficult decision to narrow the field. Phoenix and Columbus are great American cities, and I hope they’ll pursue a future bid for an RNC convention.

“I want to thank each city for their tireless efforts and hard work throughout this process, and I look forward to this next phase as we select a city to help us nominate the next Republican president of the United States.”

Next up: A small group of RNC staffers will conduct “technical visits” to the remaining cities, and report back to the site selection committee, which will further narrow the choices in mid-May. Those that remain will get full site visits from the site selection committee and a delegation from the RNC. A final decision will be made by late summer or early fall.

I still think Las Vegas remains a top choice, with Dallas as a key competitor. While Kansas City has the Koch brothers, we’ve got Sheldon Adelson. Republicans still want to win Ohio in November 2016, but that doesn’t mean they want to hold a convention there in July or August of 2016.

Bottom line: We are totally in this!

UPDATE: Here’s the Review-Journal’s political team with more on the story.