Democrats forced to shift dates for nomination conference

The Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee is being pushed back to mid-August from July.

Joe Biden campaigns from his basement in Delaware. Picture: AP

The Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee is being pushed back to mid-August from July because of the coronavirus pandemic, the biggest disruption yet to the US presidential campaign as a result of the crisis.

The gathering will now take place during the week of August 17, the Democratic National Committee said on Friday.

That delays by about a month the date when the party’s eventual nominee can start using general election dollars to directly confront President Doanld Trump.

Officials said they haven’t made any determination yet on the length of the convention or the format, given the unpredictability of the outbreak. One person familiar with planning said the duration is still expected to be four days, but that could change later.

“In our current climate of uncertainty, we believe the smartest approach is to take additional time to monitor how this situation unfolds­ so we can best position our party for a safe and successful convention,” said Joe Solmonese, the Democratic National Convention Committee’s chief executive.

Former vice-president Joe Biden, the frontrunner for the nomination, expressed doubt earlier this week that his party would be able to hold the convention as planned for July 13-16.

“The convention planning team will now use the coming weeks to further explore all option­s to ensure nominating the next president of the United States is done without unnecessary risk to public health,” the DNC said. “These options include everything from adjusting the convention’s format to crowd size and schedule.”

DNC chairman Tom Perez said the party was showing its ability to adapt to a challenging situation. “The city of Milwaukee has been an incredible partner, espec­ially over the past few weeks as we’ve confronted this global crisis, and we couldn’t be more committed to highlighting Wisconsin as a key battleground state,” he said.

Mr Trump said last week that the Republican National Convention would go on as planned in Charlotte, North Carolina. That gathering, in late August, is also expected to attract about 50,000 people. There was greater pressure on the Democrats than the Republicans to make a decision about any changes to their conventi­on because the gathering was set to start 42 days earlier.

An earlier convention is importa­nt from a fundraising perspective because candidates can raise money for general election during the primary, but they can’t spend the election dollars until they are formally the nominee.

The party’s nominee typically has considerable input in convention planning. Mr Biden, who has an almost unbeatable lead for the nomination over Bernie Sanders, “forced some people’s hand” when he expressed doubt about the conventio­n’s timing, a source said.

One advantage to pushing the convention back is that it will allow more time for fundraising to pay for the spectacle at a time when raising money is likely to be more challenging.

Corporate America is typically asked to foot a significant share of convention tabs, and organisers of the Milwaukee event have said they expect to need to raise about $US70m ($115m).

The convention was previously scheduled to avoid conflict with the Olympic Games, which were to start on July 24. With that major television event now pushed back a year, there was more of a window­ for the Democrats to make their move.

Democrats are facing an intense­ electoral period in early June, when more than a dozen states are scheduled to hold prim­aries pushed back because of the pandemic. Many states have also pushed back their congressional district and state conventions, where delegates are formally selected­ to attend the national convention, so added time until the national convention will ease the crunch faced by state parties.

The Wall Street Journal