Exclusive: DNC moves ahead on all-virtual roll call for Biden presidential nomination

President Joe Biden speaks at an event marking the 12th anniversary of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in the East Room at the White House on June 18, 2024, in Washington, D.C. At left is Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — The Democratic National Committee has taken a significant step toward formally designating Joe Biden as the party’s presidential nominee before the Democratic convention in August — a move that’s necessary to place him on the Ohio ballot for November’s election, States Newsroom has been told.

DNC members finalized their vote Thursday to move forward with an all-virtual roll call vote after 360 members voted in favor, two voted against and five abstained, according to a spokesperson.

In addition, the DNC will offer an online portal for Democrats to say what they want to see included in the national party platform as it is constructed ahead of the convention.

DNC Chair Jaime Harrison wrote in a statement that during the first term of the Biden-Harris administration, “we’ve seen the incredible outcomes that can result when democratic ideas are put into action.”

“I’m excited to announce that this year, through our testimony portal, we’ll be able to hear from more Americans and receive more input than ever before as we chart the road to the 2024 Democratic National Convention,” Harrison wrote. “We’ll build a platform that is rooted in the collective experience of Americans and mobilize people to vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in November.”

Virtual roll call

In order to nominate Biden and Harris before the Ohio deadline, the DNC’s Credentials Committee and the Rules Committee will next need to adopt their reports to allow the virtual roll call, which will formally nominate Biden and Harris, to take place before the convention.

The DNC Convention is scheduled to begin in Chicago on Aug. 19, but the state of Ohio requires that presidential candidates are formally nominated at least 90 days before Election Day.

The DNC is also moving forward with plans to hold some version of the traditional roll call during the convention, though the party is looking to “build on the success” of the roll call vote held during the all-virtual 2020 presidential nominating convention, necessitated by the pandemic.

The DNC spokesperson told States Newsroom that the goal for this year’s convention-week nomination is to pull in more Americans beyond the delegates who are in Chicago at the United Center.

Democrats, the spokesperson said, are looking to revive elements of the 2020 roll call vote, which they called “Roll Call Across America.”

The all-virtual nomination during the 2020 convention featured Democratic delegates voting from historic and sometimes quirky locations.

Those 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 field of 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 working toward the nomination of Biden and Harris, the DNC is preparing to build the official Democratic platform in the weeks ahead.

The DNC planned to open the online portal Friday that will allow all Democrats to fill out a form detailing what they want to see in this year’s party platform, the spokesperson said.

There will be a version in English as well as one in Spanish.

The first Platform Committee meeting will be July 16, followed by the Rules Committee meeting on July 19 and the Credentials Committee’s first meeting on July 21.

Those meetings will be held the same week that Republicans gather in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to hold their convention and formally nominate Donald Trump as their presidential candidate.

All the DNC’s committee meetings will be virtual and streamed online for anyone to watch. Each committee includes about 200 people from the 57 states and territories.

The DNC on Friday also announced the 15 members of the platform drafting committee.

That list includes Chair Louisa Terrell, former director of the White House Office of Legislative Affairs; former Labor Department Secretary Marty Walsh; Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison; Ted Kaufman, who worked in Biden’s U.S. Senate office before serving as the U.S. senator from Delaware; Jeremy Bash, who previously worked as the chief of staff at the CIA and the U.S. Department of Defense; Rebecca Brocato, who previously worked as a special assistant to Biden and as the National Security Council senior director for legislative affairs; Marla Blunt-Carter, who worked as the projects manager and director of constituent services in Biden’s Senate office as well as the senior advisor and political strategist for U.S. Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester; Joelle Gamble, former deputy director of the National Economic Council; Josh Hsu, former counsel and chief legal advisor for Vice President Harris; Angela Kelley, the chief advisor for policy and partnerships at the American Immigration Council and at the American Immigration Lawyers Association; former South Carolina state Sen, Marlon Kimpson; Rohini Kosoglu, former deputy assistant for Biden and domestic policy advisor for Harris; Lori Lodes, executive director at Climate Power, a political organization focused on addressing climate change; Jeff Peck, who worked for Biden on the Senate Judiciary Committee as general counsel and staff director in the late 1980s and early 1990s; Bharat Ramamurti, former deputy director for the National Economic Council; and Hilda Solis, secretary of labor during the Obama administration.

The drafting committee’s first meeting will be July 11. It will be held virtually and available for anyone to watch on the DNC’s YouTube page.

Democratic National Convention Committee Chair Minyon Moore wrote in a statement that during the “final sprint to the 2024 Democratic National Convention, we look forward to drawing upon our party’s rich diversity 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 Democratic Party’s strength is our diversity and, together, we will build a platform that reaffirms who we are as Democrats and sets us on the path to victory once again this November.”

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