Democrats 2020

Will Coronavirus Call Off the Democratic Convention?

The DNC is publicly insisting that the massive in-person gathering will still take place in July—but they’re reportedly planning for potential changes behind the scenes.

By Alison Durkee

March 23, 2020

Biden waves onstage in front of a crowd of supporters.

The coronavirus outbreak is forcing event organizers around the world to re-think their upcoming 2020 events, with even this summer's Olympics getting postponed until 2021. But the Democratic National Committee is still remaining optimistic about its summer convention—at least to the public. Organizers for the DNC convention set to take place July 13-16 in Wisconsin said Monday that the massive in-person gathering is still on, even as the organization reportedly moves behind the scenes to come up with last-minute contingency plans.

The New York Times reported Monday that convention officials are currently engaging in “intensive scenario-planning” for the summer convention and its future amid the coronavirus outbreak, and looking at “contingency options” in case the convention cannot take place in person. “As we navigate the unprecedented challenge of responding to the coronavirus, we’re exploring a range of contingency options to ensure we can deliver a successful convention without unnecessary risk to public health,” convention spokeswoman Katie Peters told the Times. “This is a very fluid situation—and the convention is still more than three months away.” Soon after Peters’s statement was published, however, the DNC walked back its tepid position on the event’s fate, with a new statement insisting that the in-person gathering is still set to go on as planned. “There are no plans to cancel the convention and we are not considering a rules change at this time,” DNC communications director Xochitl Hinojosa told Politico. “Contingency planning is a routine part of preparations for any convention.”

The DNC’s public confidence in the July convention taking place is not necessarily in line with what's reportedly taking place behind the scenes. Politico reports that DNC officials have been researching the bare minimum that can be done to officially name a nominee at the convention (whether in-person or virtually), and walk-throughs of the planned convention site in Milwaukee have been delayed. As the Times notes, even if the DNC remains committed to holding the convention as planned, there are also logistical challenges that could be out of its control. The convention is being held in the arena where the Milwaukee Bucks normally play, potentially causing a conflict if the NBA season belatedly resumes this year, and state conventions where delegates are chosen for the DNC convention are getting postponed due to the virus. “Given what the experts are saying, delegates may end up on a phone call” to select the nominee, DNC member Bob Mulholland told Politico. But for now, Mulholland said, “It is full speed ahead until a staffer yells ‘Iceberg.’” Part of the DNC's reluctance to acknowledge the event’s potential shift publicly, Third Way executive vice president Matt Bennett noted to Politico, is likely that any suggestion by the DNC that the convention won't take place as planned could easily scare off donors and attendees. “If the DNC even intimated that they’re not having a convention, then we’re not having a convention,” Bennett said. “I think it’s truly up in the air.”

Republicans, too, are publicly saying that their national convention, set to take place in August, will continue on as planned. But while Republicans at least have the surety of knowing who they’ll be coronating at the summer convention, Democrats are hindered by the fact that former vice president Joe Biden, while overwhelmingly likely to become the Democratic nominee, is still technically competing for the nomination against Senator Bernie Sanders. As Sanders remains in the race and states across the country delay their primaries due to Covid-19, making it impossible for Biden to quickly reach the necessary 1,999 delegates needed to secure the nomination, the DNC’s convention planning becomes that much harder—and any potential switch to a virtual format even further off. Biden and his campaign cannot take charge of the convention until he officially becomes the nominee, and DNC officials would likely need to have big changes signed off by the nominee’s campaign. That uncertainty could hang on for a while longer despite Biden's currently nearly-insurmountable lead, as Sanders is still taking his time to mull his campaign’s future after Biden's most recent string of landslide wins, and no primary elections are currently scheduled until April 4.

The convention’s fate is one of many things about the 2020 race to have been totally upended by the coronavirus outbreak, as candidates have had to cancel rallies and shift to virtual events, while debates take place without an audience and primary votes get postponed. The global pandemic, however, has also given Biden and Sanders the perfect opportunity to present themselves as a safer foil to President Donald Trump, whose mismanagement and downplaying of the coronavirus has made the situation worse and put American lives at risk. And while Sanders has pivoted to focusing on the coronavirus, using his vast donor network to raise over $2 million for related charities, Biden’s response to the widespread crisis currently doesn't match his frontrunner momentum. Though the former vice president has laid out a plan to address the coronavirus and spoken at length about the outbreak, Biden garnered criticism for spending much of last week out of the public eye, finally delivering a livestream Monday after six days without any public appearances. As Trump’s dislike for social distancing marches the American public into a potentially catastrophic public health disaster—and the likelihood raises that Biden won't have a splashy convention to make his case to America—Biden will now face mounting pressure to show America ASAP that he could be the effective “wartime president” in this moment of crisis that Trump cannot. “The whole country is focused on one issue and one issue only,” Teddy Goff, a top digital strategist who worked on the 2012 and 2016 Democratic presidential campaigns, told the Times. “Certainly, it’s going to be very difficult to break through on other issues. But it’s essential for the person who’s highly likely to be our Democratic nominee to have a strong voice on this issue.”