(Image Credit: Myrtle Beach Area Chamber of Commerce/CVB)

Myrtle Beach, S.C., has brought the beach to Charlotte, N.C., this week for the 2012 Democratic National Convention. A 15-ton sand sculpture of President Obama is on display outside Blackfinn Saloon in the EpiCentre.

Does this mean South Carolina, typically a red state, is turning blue? Not so fast, Dems. This is about tourism, not party politics.

"We're a bipartisan beach with a big dose of Southern hospitality and believe that once elections are over in November, everyone that has been on the campaign trail should come take a fun and affordable beach vacation with us just a little further south," Brad Dean, president of the Myrtle Beach Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, said in a news release. "With white, sandy beaches, more than 100 championship golf courses, and thousands of restaurants and attractions, what's not to love?"

Charlotte is 175 miles from Myrtle Beach and an important feeder city for the popular beach resort. An estimated 1.3 million people from Charlotte visited Myrtle Bach in 2011.

The sculpture is made completely of South Carolina sand and took five sculptors of Sarasota, Fla.-based "Team Sandtastic" three days to complete.