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Democratic National Convention, 2020

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The Democratic National Committee (DNC) held its presidential nominating convention the week of August 17, 2020, across four stages in New York City, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, and Wilmington.[1][2]

The convention was originally scheduled to take place July 13-16, 2020, in Milwaukee.[3] Organizers postponed the event in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Most of the convention's events took place remotely. The DNC announced in June 2020 that delegates should not plan to travel to Milwaukee to attend the convention.[4] Instead, votes on reports from the Rules, Platform, and Credentials committees took place remotely from August 3-15, 2020.[5]

The Democratic National Convention Committee announced on August 5, 2020, that former Vice President Joe Biden (D) and other speakers would not travel to Milwaukee.[6] Biden was formally nominated at the convention on August 18, 2020.[7]

Biden announced U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris (D) as his running mate on August 11, 2020.[8] Harris was the first Black woman to appear on a major party's ticket in the United States.[9]

Since the last multi-ballot Democratic convention took place in 1952, conventions have largely become ceremonial. They provide candidates with the "opportunity to shape their images to voters who hadn’t really tuned in before," according to AP national politics reporter Bill Barrow.[10]

National party committees release platforms every four years before a presidential election. To read more about the 2020 presidential election, click here.

On this page, you will find:

  • Logistical changes: A timeline of changes to the schedule and structure of the convention in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
  • Convention schedule: A list of speakers and events at the convention each day.
  • History: An overview of the history of presidential nominating conventions and a list of past Democratic conventions.
  • Host city: An explanation of why Milwaukee was selected to host the convention and a look at other finalists.
  • Delegates: An overview of the type and number of delegates expected to attend and how they influenced the selection of a nominee.
  • Media coverage: A selection of media coverage of a possible contested convention.

For an overview of Ballotpedia's on-the-ground coverage of the last Democratic National Convention in 2016, click here.

Logistical changes in response to the coronavirus pandemic

Wisconsin Center
  • April 2, 2020: The Democratic National Committee (DNC) postponed the national convention a month to August 17-20, 2020, in response to the coronavirus pandemic.[1] In-person events were still scheduled to take place in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, although the convention was scaled back.
  • June 24, 2020:
    • The DNC said in a statement, "After consulting with public health officials about the COVID-19 pandemic, convention organizers are announcing today that they have determined state delegations should not plan to travel to Milwaukee and should plan to conduct their official convention business remotely."[4]
    • The event was moved from the 17,000-seat Fiserv Forum to the 4,500-seat theater and 12,000-seat arena at the Wisconsin Center.[4]
    • Former Vice President Joe Biden was still expected to be in Milwaukee to accept the party's presidential nomination.[4]
  • July 10, 2020: The DNC announced that convention delegates would be able to vote virtually from August 3-15, 2020, on convention business. "Given the pandemic, the [Democratic National Convention Committee] has developed a voting system that will allow convention delegates to safely and securely cast ballots for all required votes. Each delegate will be sent an individualized ballot with unique identifiers via email," DNC Secretary Jason Rae said.[11]
  • July 27, 2020: The DNC released safety measures for the convention, which included self-isolation before the event, daily coronavirus testing, and masks.[12]
  • August 5, 2020: The Democratic National Convention Committee announced that Biden and other convention speakers would not travel to Milwaukee for the convention "in order to prevent risking the health of our host community as well as the convention’s production teams, security officials, community partners, media and others necessary to orchestrate the event." The committee said Biden would accept the nomination from his home state of Delaware, instead.[6]

Convention schedule and meetings

See also: Democratic National Convention, 2020/Schedule and speakers

This section lists the schedule for the convention program from August 17-20, 2020, at the Democratic National Convention.[13][14]

Monday, August 17: We the People


Meetings and procedures

  • Hispanic Caucus Meeting
  • Labor Council Meeting
  • AAPI Caucus Meeting
  • Interfaith Council Meeting
  • Ethnic Council Meeting
  • Youth Council Meeting
  • Women's Caucus Meeting
  • Votes on reports from the Rules, Platform, and Credentials committees took place remotely from August 3-15, 2020. Results will be announced on August 17.[15]

Speakers


Tuesday, August 18: Leadership Matters


Meetings and procedures

  • Rural Caucus Meeting
  • Senior Council Meeting
  • LGBTQ Caucus Meeting
  • Small Business Council Meeting
  • Disability Council Meeting
  • Jewish Council Meeting
  • Youth Council Meeting
  • Native American Caucus Meeting
  • Council on the Environmental and Climate Crisis
  • Veterans and Military Families Council Meeting
  • Roll call for the presidential nomination

Keynote address speakers[16]

Speakers


Wednesday, August 19: A More Perfect Union


Meetings and procedures

  • Hispanic Caucus Meeting
  • Labor Council Meeting
  • AAPI Caucus Meeting
  • Interfaith Council Meeting
  • Ethnic Council Meeting
  • Youth Council Meeting
  • Women's Caucus Meeting
  • Vice presidential nomination and acclamation

Speakers


Thursday, August 20: America's Promise


Meetings and procedures

  • LGBTQ Caucus Meeting
  • Small Business Council Meeting
  • Native American Caucus Meeting
  • Poverty Caucus Meeting

Speakers


Presidential nomination roll call

The following spreadsheet contains the number of delegates each candidate received during the presidential nomination roll call at the Democratic National Convention on August 18, 2020. It was updated live during the event.

Delegates

See also: Democratic delegate rules, 2020

In 2020, there were 4,750 delegates: 3,979 pledged delegates and 771 automatic delegates—more commonly known as superdelegates.[18]

To win the Democratic nomination, a presidential candidate needed to receive support from a majority of the pledged delegates on the first ballot: 1,991 pledged delegates.[19][20]

If the convention was contested and went to a second ballot or more, automatic delegates—commonly referred to as superdelegates—were able to vote and a candidate must have received majority support from all delegates—2,375.5 votes. Previously, superdelegates were able to vote on the first ballot. This rule changed after the 2016 presidential election, when the Unity Reform Commission proposed several ways to reduce the number and power of superdelegates.[21]

The map below compares delegate counts by state. A lighter shade of blue indicates a smaller number of delegates while a darker shade indicates a larger number.

The following chart lists the election type, delegate type breakdown, and total delegates for each state and territory.

History

The first Democratic national convention was held in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1832 and followed conventions which had been held by the Anti-Masonic and National Republican parties the previous year.[22] Before conventions were introduced, presidential nominees were selected at private caucuses open only to members of Congress.[23] Click here for a breakdown of Democratic national conventions through 2008.

2016 convention

See also: Democratic National Convention, 2016

The 2016 Democratic National Convention was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from July 25-28, 2016. At the convention, delegates selected former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (D) as the party's presidential nominee and Sen. Tim Kaine (D) as the vice presidential nominee. Featured speakers included runner-up candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I), Vice President Joe Biden (D), and President Barack Obama (D).

Host city

Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was the host of the 2020 Democratic convention. DNC Chairman Tom Perez (D) said of the city, "The Democratic Party is the party of working people, and Milwaukee is a city of working people. We saw in this last election what we can accomplish when we come together, invest, and fight for working people, and that was proven right here in Wisconsin."[25] It was Milwaukee's first national major-party convention, the first Democratic convention in the Midwest since 1996, and the first Democratic convention in a Midwestern city other than Chicago since 1916.[26]

The choice signalled a Democratic focus on Wisconsin and nearby states and a repudiation of the Hillary Clinton campaign's decision not to emphasize the region in 2016, according to National Public Radio analyst Don Gonyea.[27] In 2016, Donald Trump (R) carried Wisconsin by a margin of 0.7 percentage points. He was the first Republican presidential candidate to carry the state since Ronald Reagan (R) in 1984.

Venue

Fiserv Forum, Milwaukee

The convention was originally scheduled to be held at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee. It was moved to the Wisconsin Center in response to the coronavirus pandemic.[4]

Other finalists

On June 20, 2018, the DNC announced that it had selected four finalists to host the 2020 convention. In addition to Milwaukee, cities considered included:

  • Denver, Colorado: The city of Denver withdrew its bid due to a scheduling conflict.[28] It had last hosted the 2008 Democratic National Convention. Denver has never hosted the Republican National Convention.
  • Houston, Texas: Democratic officials chose not to host the 2020 convention in Houston due to the city's association with the oil and gas industries as well as concerns over the possibility of a firefighters' strike, according to The New York Times.[3] Houston last hosted the Republican National Convention in 1992 and the Democratic National Convention in 1928.
  • Miami Beach, Florida: Democratic officials chose not to host the 2020 convention in Miami Beach due to potential for hurricanes, concerns over room availability, and a desire to hold a Midwestern convention, according to the Sunshine State News.[29] Miami Beach hosted both parties' conventions in 1972. It was the city's second Republican National Convention in a row, having also hosted the Republican convention in 1968.

Media coverage of possible contested convention

With more than two dozen Democratic candidates running at one point, several commentators discussed the possibility that the Democratic National Convention will be contested or brokered in 2020. A contested convention occurs when a party's nominee is not selected by a majority in the first round of delegate voting.

Ballotpedia has compiled political analysis discussing the possibility of a contested convention throughout the Democratic primary.

July 2019

“

With the first debates and two quarters of fundraising behind them, strategists with the leading Democratic campaigns and party operatives are beginning to rethink the conventional narrative of the 2020 primary.

Gone is the expectation of a massive candidate pile-up when the early states begin voting, and a long, drawn-out primary. Few are worried anymore about the prospect of a brokered convention. Instead, the campaigns are revising their strategic outlooks to account for a field that is dramatically winnowed well before Iowa voters go to the caucuses — perhaps to as few as eight candidates on Feb. 3.

By Super Tuesday, some expect between one and three candidates will be left standing.[30]

”
—Christopher Cadelago, PoliticoCite error: Closing </ref> missing for <ref> tag

May 2019

“

Of the Democratic campaigns thinking about superdelegate outreach, Harris’s has the most organized and tactical operation. One of her senior advisers, David Huynh, oversaw Clinton’s exhaustive delegate-tracking program in 2016 before leading the effort to wrangle votes in Tom Perez’s successful campaign for DNC chair. ...

Sanders aides say they hope to be in contact with superdelegates earlier in the process than last time, when a last-ditch effort to court their support prompted one supporter to encourage Sanders voters to 'harass' superdelegates by posting their contact information in an online 'hit list.'

Several operatives noted that South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg might have an advantage with the 450 or so superdelegates who are DNC members. In 2017, Buttigieg ran for DNC chair against Perez, helping to boost his national profile, though he dropped out of the race before voting. ...

'Look, it’s smart politics in the sense that, if you have the bandwidth and capacity to do it, it’d be very smart to be ready for that contingency,' said Longabaugh, the former Sanders adviser.

'But I would argue for putting more time into trying to win Iowa and New Hampshire.'[30]

”
—Ruby Cramer, BuzzFeed News[31]

April 2019

“

Of course, the biggest culling of the flock will come during the early caucuses and primaries. And if the winnowing process works normally, almost all the candidates will exit without winning a significant number of delegates. Again, it’s possible that this time will be different. But so far there are no indications that it is.

That leaves only one plausible path to a contested convention. First, it requires a protest-type candidate, similar to Jesse Jackson in 1984 or Ron Paul in 2008, who stays in without any realistic chance of being nominated while also staying popular enough to win quite a few delegates. On the Democratic side, that means regularly getting at least 15 percent of the vote. But that’s not enough by itself. To deadlock the convention, it’s also necessary for two relatively evenly matched candidates to fight it out all the way to the end. For Democrats, that happened in 1984 with Walter Mondale and Gary Hart; in 2008 with Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton; and, to a lesser extent, in 2016 with Clinton and Sanders. In 1988, 1992, 2000 and 2004, a solid winner emerged fairly quickly.[30]

”
—Jonathan Bernstein, Bloomberg[32]


“

It is true that the Democratic primary calendar, as it stands now, is quite frontloaded, with two-thirds of the delegates being awarded in a six-week blitz after Iowa. That could allow a strong candidate to emerge and put the nomination out of reach relatively quickly. Yet it could also cut the other way. It's easier for candidates with less funding to stick it out for six weeks than six months, meaning that the field could still be quite crowded during that early period. Even if one candidate emerges from that period with a clear delegate lead, there may not be enough delegates still on the board to put him or her over the top going into the convention.[30]

”
—Philip Klein, Washington Examiner[33]

March 2019

“

So those who scoff at the possibility of a contested convention need to factor in several things: the size and strength of the field, the absence of a big-time front-runner, the likely split of delegates and a relatively front-loaded primary calendar that could make survivors of the early events quite durable.

It’s important to note that proportionality of delegate awards has its limits. There is a 15 percent minimum threshold for winning delegates at all, and in many congressional districts awarding delegates there really aren’t that many at stake to spread them around in strict proportion to the popular vote. But there are some counter-pressures that might encourage “losing” candidates to hold out, as well. As Nate Cohn notes, Democrats have “killed” superdelegates’ independence on first ballots. But if there are subsequent ballots, these ex officio delegates will spring back to life.[30]

”
—Ed Kilgore, New York Magazine[34]

February 2019

“

But there's one candidate [Bernie Sanders] who party leaders can't pressure to get out of the race. And whether he's leading or lagging, he could make it extremely difficult for any candidate — including him — to cobble together a majority of pledged delegates. ...

What happens then? Ironically, the rules changes Sanders fought for could give the party leadership more explicit power than ever. Under the new rules, unpledged "super delegates" cannot vote on the first ballot. Pledged delegates have to vote for their pledged nominee. So if no candidate has consolidated a majority in the primaries, then the first ballot will not yield a nominee. And after that first ballot, pledged delegates are unbound and unpledged delegates can vote. It's an old-time brokered convention — the dream of all political reporters. ...

If Sanders can't complete his revolution in the primaries, he'll have every reason to take it to the convention, and play his hand with party leaders in a smoke-filled room.[30]

”
—Noah Millman, The Week[35]

Recent news

See also

External links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "2020 DNC in Milwaukee pushed back to week of August 17 in response to coronavirus pandemic," April 2, 2020
  2. ↑ CNN, "5 things to know for August 17: USPS, coronavirus, DNC, Russia investigation, Belarus," August 17, 2020
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 The New York Times, "Milwaukee Picked as Site of 2020 Democratic National Convention," March 11, 2019
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 CNBC, "Biden will accept nomination at the Democratic convention in Milwaukee, delegates told to stay home," June 24, 2020
  5. ↑ ABC News, "Democrats announce convention schedule, party officers for 2020 gathering transformed by coronavirus," July 29, 2020
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 ABC News, "Biden will no longer travel to Milwaukee for DNC amid coronavirus concerns," August 5, 2020
  7. ↑ AP, "Biden formally clinches Democratic presidential nomination," June 5, 2020
  8. ↑ Twitter, "Joe Biden," August 11, 2020
  9. ↑ CNBC, "Joe Biden picks Sen. Kamala Harris to be his vice presidential running mate, making her the first black woman on a major ticket," August 11, 2020
  10. ↑ PBS, "Do U.S. political conventions still matter?" July 18, 2016
  11. ↑ CNN, "Democrats reveal remote voting rules for convention amid pandemic," July 10, 2020
  12. ↑ Axios, "DNC releases coronavirus protocols for August convention," July 27, 2020
  13. ↑ Democratic National Convention, "Democratic National Convention Schedule," accessed July 30, 2020
  14. ↑ Axios, "Democrats announce full list of convention speakers," August 11, 2020
  15. ↑ ABC News, "Democrats announce convention schedule, party officers for 2020 gathering transformed by coronavirus," July 29, 2020
  16. ↑ 2020 Democratic National Convention, "Democrats Unveil A New Kind of Convention Keynote," August 16, 2020
  17. ↑ CNBC, "Mike Bloomberg to speak at DNC as Democrats wonder whether he will spend big for Biden," August 13, 2020
  18. ↑ Green Papers, "The Math Behind the Democratic Delegate Allocation 2020," accessed January 9, 2020
  19. ↑ The Democratic National Committee is calculating a majority as 50% plus one delegate.
  20. ↑ Twitter, "Josh Putnam," February 3, 2020
  21. ↑ Politico, "Kemp poised to spurn Trump on Georgia Senate pick," December 2, 2019
  22. ↑ National Constitution Center, "On this day, the first Democratic Party convention," May 21, 2018
  23. ↑ Reuters, "How selecting U.S. presidential candidates became the people's choice," March 29, 2016
  24. ↑ About.com American History, "Democratic National Conventions," accessed March 30, 2014
  25. ↑ CNN, "Democrats pick Milwaukee for 2020 national convention site," March 11, 2019
  26. ↑ Politico, "Milwaukee to host Democrats' 2020 convention," March 11, 2019
  27. ↑ National Public Radio, "Milwaukee's The One For Democrats," March 11, 2019
  28. ↑ The Hill, "Dems down to three possible 2020 convention host cities," June 20, 2018
  29. ↑ Sunshine State News, "Milwaukee Outduels Miami for the 2020 Democratic National Convention," March 12, 2019
  30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 30.2 30.3 30.4 30.5 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
  31. ↑ BuzzFeed News, "Democratic Candidates Are Preparing For A Contested Convention — By Courting Superdelegates," May 2, 2019
  32. ↑ Bloomberg, "Don’t Bet on a Contested Convention," April 18, 2019
  33. ↑ Washington Examiner, "Why a contested Democratic convention is a real possibility in 2020," April 16, 2019
  34. ↑ New York Magazine, "Yes, a Contested Convention Could Actually Happen in 2020," March 14, 2019
  35. ↑ The Week, "How Bernie 2020 could lead to a brokered convention," February 21, 2019
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