Democrats push to nominate Biden before convention

The News

The Democratic Party’s rules committee is urging members to support a virtual vote to nominate Biden — although not next week — in a letter to DNC members and obtained by Semafor. The move is the latest in the party’s back-and-forth over when to affirm the Biden-Harris ticket.

In the letter, rules co-chairs Leah Daughtry and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz write that “no virtual voting will begin before August 1.” They add that the party should be ready to vote, though, to prevent any “conceivable legal challenges” to the ticket from conservatives in the Ohio legislature, who some Democrats suspect could try and keep Biden off the ballot due to a previous state deadline that has since been extended.

“Our goal is not to fast-track,” they wrote, explaining that they would meet on Friday to “propose a framework,” and then meet again the following week to consider changes. “None of this will be rushed.”

The August timeline is later than some House Democrats feared, after DNC and Biden campaign leaders suggested that delegates could nominate the ticket next week. It is well before the convention, however, which starts on August 19.

The stated reason: Worries about Ohio, where the Republican-led legislature moved its August 7 deadline to accommodate the later DNC.

“Unless Democratic nominees for President and Vice President are selected and certified to Ohio by August 7, we are likely to face litigation about the efficacy of our filings,” write Daughtry and Walz.

The Ohio issue has flummoxed Democrats for months, and there is widespread disagreement over how party leaders now see it. Yesterday, spokesmen for Ohio’s governor and secretary of state told Semafor that the new, later ballot deadline law, while it does not go into effect until September, will not be changed. But the Biden campaign told reporters that it could not rule out last-minute machinations by the GOP.

The View From Republicans

The Democratic angst about whether to vote early to confirm Biden’s nomination has thrilled Republicans, who say that the Biden-Harris ticket is preferable to a last-minute alternative.

“Great idea,” RNC strategist and Maryland committeeman David Bossie told Semafor on Tuesday. “I want that hole in the Titanic as soon as possible.”

The View From Democrats

California Rep. Jared Huffman told Semafor that the Walz-Daughtry letter answered some of the concerns of House members, who were gathering names for a letter to oppose a July virtual vote.

“We’re glad to see that the pressure has worked and the DNC will not rush this virtual process through in July,” he said. “We won’t be sending the letter at this time.”

David’s view

The idea of nominating Biden before the convention to out-maneuver Ohio Republicans has divided Democrats. Some are on record wanting Biden to drop out the race entirely, which would become harder, although not impossible, once delegates nominate him.

Others see the Ohio deadline as a chimera. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, who called a special legislative session to accommodate the late August DNC with a new deadline, has said flat-out that he won’t go back on it to the earlier deadline. Still, Biden’s allies in the DNC are relying on fear of Republicans to protect his nomination’s chances, arguing that the conservative legal threats could succeed, even if state law is on Democrats’ side. In turn, Republicans who believe that the Biden-Harris ticket is weak and beatable are aligned with Democrats who want to get the nomination done sooner rather than later — and end talk of a replacement candidate.

Notable

• In the American Prospect, David Dayen and Luke Goldstein argue that the DNC is rushing the process to quash concerns about the ticket, seeing no legal basis for holding a nominating vote before Chicago. “There have been ongoing deliberations among delegates about whether Biden is the best nominee for the party following his debate performance,” they report. “However, party leaders have explicitly tried to tamp down any unofficial conversation about this on Zoom calls and in Facebook groups.”