With more congressional Democrats calling on Biden to step aside each day, a faction of the Democratic Party leadership is rushing to get the delegates to the Democratic National Convention to nominate President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris before the convention, in a virtual roll call that could begin as soon as August 1.
The leaders are asking the DNC’s Convention Rules Committee to begin considering at its first meeting on Friday morning, a virtual affair, new nominating rules that would set the virtual roll call in motion. On Tuesday, past DNC Chairs Donna Brazile, Howard Dean, and Terry McAuliffe sent the committee’s members a letter urging them to back the proposal for an early, virtual roll call. On Wednesday, the Convention Rules Committee’s co-chairs sent committee members a letter explaining that the final vote will not be on Friday, and informing them that the virtual roll call would not begin until August. Previous reporting had indicated it could begin as soon as Monday, July 22.
The rules committee is composed of 186 individuals, including 27 who were nominated to serve on the committee by DNC Chair Jaime Harrison, a former Podesta Group lobbyist who was tapped for the position by Biden. The remaining members were selected through procedures laid out in the states’ delegate selection plans, in accordance with DNC rules.
Many of the rules committee members who were nominated by Harrison have deep ties to Biden, while some work as attorneys and consultants for industries that have major policy and regulatory interests at stake in who gets elected president in November.
