US President Joe Biden departs the White House from Washington, D.C., for Las Vegas on July 15, 2024. United States.
Sellal Gunes | Anadolu | Getty Images
The Democratic National Committee said the virtual roll call to formally nominate President Joe Biden as the party’s presidential nominee will not begin until Aug. 1, according to a letter to delegates sent Wednesday and obtained by NBC News.
The decision rules out the possibility that a quick nomination process for Biden, which some Biden associates have pushed for, could begin as early as next week.
It also buys more time for Democrats in Congress to unite and call on Biden to resign, as many of them privately want to do so.
The House and Senate are away this week, but will return to Washington the week of July 22.
“No matter what is reported, our goal is not to move quickly,” wrote Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Bishop Leah Daughtry, co-chairs of the DNC’s rules committee. “None of this will be rushed. Unlike other major political parties in our country, our rules are set in public meetings rooted in the party’s charter and traditions.”
The nominating process won’t begin until August, but it will likely be completed before the Democratic National Convention, which begins on August 19, Walz and Daughtry noted. Democrats decided to hold their convention unusually late this year, in part to avoid conflicting with the Olympics. But starting late risks overlapping with multiple state deadlines for presidential nominations.
The Wednesday letter comes as the Democratic National Convention (DNC) faces continued pressure from Democratic lawmakers and donors to scrap the expedited nomination schedule altogether, giving the party time to find a new nominee.
Concerns about Biden’s age and mental acuity were brought to public attention after his dismal performance in the June 27 debate with former President Donald Trump.
As of Wednesday, at least 19 Democrats in Congress have publicly urged Biden to drop out of the race and let another candidate take the ticket. Many more have privately expressed concerns about the president’s chances of reelection.
On Tuesday, a group of House Democrats collected signatures for a draft letter calling on the Democratic National Committee to cancel the early voting process and hold a nominating vote at the Democratic National Convention.
“It is a terrible idea to prematurely block any change to the Democratic nomination and stifle debate through an unnecessary and unprecedented ‘virtual roll call,’” the letter said Tuesday.
Biden has repeatedly resisted pressure to drop out, promising to stay in the race unless his team tells him there is “no way” he can win.
The DNC decided in May to hold a virtual roll call to meet Ohio’s August 7 deadline to get Biden on the ballot. When Ohio officially pushed back its ballot deadline to late August, the DNC stuck with its virtual roll call plan.
“We believe a virtual component is the smartest approach because it ensures ballot access in a state that needs to be won in November and avoids potential pitfalls if the process is delayed,” Daughtry and Walz wrote in the letter. “The challenges we face with ballot access deadlines do not end in Ohio.”
They justified the virtual voting process by saying that Washington, Montana, Oklahoma, California and Virginia have deadlines for voting in late August and that there is no time constraints given the Democratic National Convention schedule.
