Democrats Weigh Early Biden Nomination to Squash Talk of a Swap
- Party could formally nominate Biden as early as July 21
- President’s allies have pushed back on calls for replacement
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...rly-biden-nomination-to-squash-talk-of-a-swap
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The Democratic National Committee is considering formally nominating Joe Biden as early as mid-July to ensure that the president is on November ballots, while helping to stamp out intra-party chatter of replacing him after last week’s poor debate performance.
A potential date for Biden’s nomination is July 21, when the Democratic convention’s credentials committee meets virtually, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity. The panel is meeting to finalize procedures before the party’s convention in Chicago starts on Aug. 19.
Democrats had already planned to nominate Biden, 81, before the convention in order to ensure he appears on the ballot in Ohio, which had an Aug. 7 deadline for candidates to be certified.
That deadline has since been moved back, but the plans to nominate the president early could serve another purpose: helping to quell talk of a potential replacement or an open convention following Biden’s cataclysmic debate against Donald Trump. The president’s lackluster showing last Thursday sparked calls from some prominent Democrats for him to suspend his campaign in favor of passing the torch to someone else.
In the days since the debate, Biden’s allies have struck a defiant tone, angrily dismissing calls for the oldest president in US history to end his reelection campaign to make way for another contender. The incumbent president won about 99% of his party’s pledged delegates during the 2024 primary contest.
Still, even before the debate, polls showed Biden’s reelection effort bedeviled by voter concerns about his age and ability to fulfill a second term.
The July 21 date would come 10 days after Trump’s sentencing in Manhattan for his felony conviction for trying to conceal hush-money payments to hide an alleged affair with an adult film star ahead of the 2016 election. And it would happen just three days after Trump is scheduled to accept his party’s nomination at the Republican convention in Milwaukee.
The DNC already altered its rules to allow a change to convention dates and voting procedures, including a possible roll-call vote “before the delegates have convened in-person in Chicago.”
That change came from the Rules and Bylaws Committee, which has now ceded jurisdiction to a separate Convention Rules Committee. That committee meets July 19, giving it a chance to formalize the procedures for a virtual vote, said Rules and Bylaws Committee Co-Chair Jim Roosevelt Jr.
The DNC convention’s platform committee meets on July 16, the Rules Committee on July 19 and the Credentials Committee on July 21. The meetings will be virtual and viewable for the public on the party’s YouTube channel.
