2012 Republican Convention: Ronald Reagan Hologram Delayed Amid Concerns of Upstaging Romney

The rumored Ronald Reagan hologram is real, but it won’t make its debut at the Republican National Convention as had been speculated due to concerns that its appearance would upstage Mitt Romney.

Tony Reynolds, founder of crowdsourcing website A KickIn Crowd, told Yahoo News that he has been working with AV Concepts, one of the companies behind the Tupac Shakur hologram that debuted earlier the year at the Coachella music festival, to create the hologram.

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The projection of the former president was intended to be unveiled outside the halls of the convention, which is taking place this week in Tampa, Fla., Yahoo News reported. But the virtual Reagan will now make its debut later this year or early next.

The move came after Republican activists expressed concern that its appearance would overshadow the GOP presidential nominee, Reynolds said.

“At the time, he hadn’t chosen [vice presidential candidate] Paul Ryan, so I think they were a little worried about his energy,” he told Yahoo News. “Even in a hologram form I think Reagan’s going to beat a lot of people in terms of communicating.”

Reynolds, who obtained rights to a speech Reagan gave on small businesses, added that the hologram wasn’t an official part of the convention. His intention is to use the hologram to promote the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act.

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Another reason Reynolds said he decided to delay the hologram’s debut was that he didn’t want it to be labeled a partisan act.

“We were careful because the JOBS Act was a bipartisan bill and we didn’t want to seem like we were favoring Republicans,” he said.