WASHINGTON – The Democratic National Committee has taken a major step toward officially nominating Joe Biden as the party’s presidential nominee ahead of the Democratic National Convention in August – a move necessary to get him on Ohio’s ballot for the November election, States Newsroom was told.
According to a spokesman, DNC members completed their vote on Thursday and conducted an all-virtual roll call vote after 360 members voted in favor, two opposed and five abstained.
In addition, the DNC will provide Democrats with an online portal where they can express their wishes for the national party platform that will be drawn up in the run-up to the convention.
DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison wrote in a statement that during the first term of the Biden-Harris administration, “we have seen the incredible results that can be achieved when democratic ideas are put into action.”
“I am excited to announce that this year, through our testimony portal, we will be able to listen to more Americans and get more input than ever before as we plan the path to the 2024 Democratic National Convention,” Harrison wrote. “We will build a platform rooted in the collective experience of Americans and mobilize people to vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in November.”
Virtual appeal
To nominate Biden and Harris before the Ohio deadline, the DNC’s Credentials Committee and Rules Committee must next adopt their reports so that the virtual roll call that will officially nominate Biden and Harris can take place before the convention.
The DNC convention is scheduled to begin in Chicago on August 19, but the state of Ohio requires the Presidential candidates are officially nominated at least 90 days before Election Day.
The DNC is also moving forward with plans to hold some sort of conventional roll call during the convention, although the party wants to “build on the success” of roll calls held during the 2020 presidential nominating convention, which was entirely virtual due to the pandemic.
The DNC spokesman told States Newsroom that the goal of nominating this year’s convention week is to attract even more Americans beyond the delegates who are in Chicago at the United Center.
The Democrats, the spokesman said, want to revive elements of the 2020 roll call vote, which they call “Roll Call Across America.”
In the entirely virtual nomination during the 2020 convention, Democratic delegates voted from historic and sometimes unusual locations.
These included the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Alabama, the Joseph R. Biden Jr. Railroad Station in Delaware, a cornfield in Iowa, an art studio and community center in Louisiana, a pasture with grazing cattle in Montana, Biden’s childhood home in Pennsylvania and a beach in Rhode Island where a chef held a plate of fried calamari.
Democratic Platform
In addition to its efforts to nominate Biden and Harris, the DNC is also preparing to build the official Democratic platform in the coming weeks.
The DNC plans to open an online portal on Friday that will allow all Democrats to fill out a form detailing what they want for this year’s party platform, the spokesman said.
There will be a version in English and one in Spanish.
The first meeting of the Platform Committee will be on July 16, followed by the Rules Committee meeting on July 19 and the first meeting of the Credentials Committee on July 21.
These meetings take place the same week that Republicans gather in Milwaukee, Wisconsin for their convention and officially nominate Donald Trump as their presidential candidate.
All DNC committee meetings are held virtually and streamed online for anyone to watch. Each committee is made up of about 200 people from the 57 states and territories.
The DNC on Friday also announced the 15 members of the platform editorial committee.
That list includes Chairwoman Louisa Terrell, former director of the White House Office of Legislative Affairs; former Labor Secretary Marty Walsh; Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison; Ted Kaufman, who worked in Biden’s Senate office before becoming U.S. Senator for Delaware; Jeremy Bash, who previously served as chief of staff at the CIA and the U.S. Department of Defense; Rebecca Brocato, who previously served as special assistant to Biden and senior director for legislative affairs at the National Security Council; Marla Blunt-Carter, who served as project manager and director of voter outreach in Biden’s Senate office and as senior adviser and policy strategist to U.S. Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester; Joelle Gamble, former deputy director of the National Economic Council; Josh Hsu, former legal counsel and chief legal adviser to Vice President Harris; Angela Kelley, senior adviser for policy and partnerships at the American Immigration Council and the American Immigration Lawyers Association; former South Carolina state Senator Marlon Kimpson; Rohini Kosoglu, former deputy assistant to Biden and domestic policy adviser to Harris; Lori Lodes, executive director of Climate Power, a policy organization that focuses on climate change; Jeff Peck, who served as senior adviser and staff director for Biden on the Senate Judiciary Committee in the slow 1980s and early 1990s; Bharat Ramamurti, former deputy director of the National Economic Council; and Hilda Solis, Secretary of Labor during the Obama administration.
The first meeting of the Editorial Board will take place on July 11. It will be held virtually and can be viewed by anyone on the DNC’s YouTube page.
Democratic National Convention Committee Chair Minyon Moore wrote in a statement that during the “home stretch to the 2024 Democratic National Convention, we look forward to leveraging the great diversity of our party and hearing from Americans from all walks of life as we chart the course for the next four years under the leadership of President Biden and Vice President Harris.”
“The strength of the Democratic Party is our diversity, and together we will build a platform that affirms who we are as Democrats and puts us on the path to victory again in November.”
