Less than three months before the Democratic National Convention comes to Chicago, the event is already losing a significant portion of its celebratory luster as national Democrats on Tuesday said they plan to virtually nominate President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris before the convention to comply with ballot access laws in the crucial swing state of Ohio.
Jaime Harrison, chair of the Democratic National Committee, said Tuesday that state delegations will convene virtually before Ohio’s Aug. 7 deadline for presidential candidates to be certified for that state’s ballot.
The Ohio deadline is 12 days before the DNC is scheduled to open its doors on Aug. 19 at the United Center and McCormick Place for its quadrennial convention, leading up to what was to have been the traditional roll call of the states and the celebratory renomination of the president.
Chicago convention organizers said Biden and Harris will still attend the event to “celebrate” and accept their nominations before thousands of delegates at the United Center who will be attending their first in-person political convention in eight years.
The new virtual nomination, a remote process used to nominate Biden during the COVID-19 attendance-restricted 2020 convention, will be held after meetings of the DNC’s rules and bylaws committee to implement the change. The committee’s vote is scheduled for June 4.
The national Democrats’ decision to move ahead with the pre-convention nomination came after Republican state lawmakers in Ohio repeatedly failed to shift the ballot access date, as has been done in the past for both parties. Republican Gov. Mike DeWine had called the Republican-dominated legislature into special session to address the issue, but Democrats said GOP state lawmakers have impeded the process by trying to attach other measures that would make it more difficult to advance citizen-driven initiatives onto the state ballot.
Former President Donald Trump’s ballot access in Ohio was not in jeopardy since his anticipated nomination is set for the July 15-18 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, well in advance of the Ohio ballot deadline.
“Joe Biden will be on the ballot in Ohio and all 50 states, and Ohio Republicans agree. But when the time has come for action, they have failed to act every time, so Democrats will land this plane on our own,” Harrison said in a statement.
“Through a virtual roll call, we will ensure that Republicans can’t chip away at our democracy through incompetence or partisan tricks and that Ohioans can exercise their right to vote for the presidential candidate of their choice,” Harrison said.
Trump defeated Biden in Ohio 53%-45% in 2020 after defeating Hillary Clinton there by 51% to 43% in 2016. The state has 17 electoral votes at stake.
Despite Republican advantages at the Ohio statehouse, Democrats have been successful in putting initiative-driven proposals on the ballot. That includes Democrats overcoming GOP efforts last year to block the ratification of a state constitutional amendment enshrining a right to abortion. Democrats have used the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade as a major campaign theme against Republicans.
“Democrats will not trade Ohioans’ ability to hold their government accountable for presidential ballot access. Just like when they attempted to take away our rights and freedoms last year,” Liz Walters, the state’s Democratic chair, said in a statement. “Ohio Republicans have shown their blatant disregard for the rights of voters, and we won’t let them get away with another effort to hold our democracy hostage.”
As was the case when Chicago last hosted the DNC in 1996, whether to renominate a sitting president — Bill Clinton then and Joe Biden now — is not an issue for convention delegates. Biden easily won Democratic primaries across the country this year without any significant opposition.
The decision to move forward with a virtual nomination comes as Democratic convention planners had earlier indicated they wanted to import more live remote programming into the United Center event by using techniques from the 2020 convention when COVID-19 curtailed many traditional convention hall activities. That included the possibility of revisiting the 2020 roll call of the 57 states and territories casting their nominating ballots from remote locations.
Officials said no final decisions on the convention’s programming, such as a symbolic roll call, have been made.
But with their formal nominations of Biden and Harris a fait accompli prior to the actual August convention events, DNC organizers will be looking for ways to try to energize a crowd of delegates in an in-person show of unity leading to and including Biden’s acceptance speech. Organizers also face an even greater emphasis to find more creative ways to sell the president’s campaign message before the Nov. 5 election.
“We are excited to welcome delegates and guests to Chicago where President Biden and Vice President Harris will celebrate their nominations from the United Center and address the American people using beloved elements of conventions past while building on the success of our innovative 2020 programming,” said Emily Soong, a Democratic National Convention spokesperson.
In a statement, the Democratic National Committee said that “in spite of Republicans’ bad-faith efforts to stand in the way, the in-person convention in Chicago will continue to serve as an important convening event for Democrats across the country.”
