Las Vegas and Charlotte, North Carolina, are the finalists as the site for the 2020 Republican National Convention, a RNC official close to the process said Tuesday.

An initial group of seven has been narrowed to those two cities, and the decision could come as soon as mid-July, when the committee meets in Austin, Texas.

"It could go either way," the insider told me.

Las Vegas was in the running for the convention in 2016, but dropped out at the eleventh hour after questions were raised about whether T-Mobile arena would be ready in time and whether the convention center would be available. The home of the Golden Knights is, of course, available now, and the convention center's schedule could be cleared, I am told.

And there is a third possibility, too: Raiders stadium, if it is ready.

Las Vegas has the requisite number of hotel rooms, and the RNC folks love our much-maligned monorail to move people.

Charlotte is a formidable competitor, though, as it hosted a national convention as recently as 2012, when the Democrats met there to nominate Barack Obama for a second term. And, as always, any city is less potentially controversial than Las Vegas. (Both cities have Trump properties.)

I'm told that major GOP donor Sheldon Adelson has not yet expressed any support or opposition to the idea, which could help swing the decision one way or another.