Biden won’t go to Milwaukee to accept Dems’ nomination
Joe Biden will not travel to Milwaukee to accept the Democratic presidential nomination because of concerns over the coronavirus, party officials said Wednesday, signaling a move to a convention that essentially has become entirely virtual.
It is the latest example of the pandemic’s sweeping effects on the 2020 presidential election and the latest blow to traditional party nominating conventions that historically have marked the start of fall general election campaigns.
“From the very beginning of this pandemic, we put the health and safety of the American people first,” said Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez. “We followed the science, listened to doctors and public health experts, and we continued making adjustments to our plans in order to protect lives. That’s the kind of steady and responsible leadership America deserves. And that’s the leadership Joe Biden will bring to the White House.”
Neither the Biden campaign nor DNC officials described how Biden might accept the nomination, which even in the pandemic could be a madefor-screen event that reaches millions of voters via television and online.
A DNC official said all speakers and presenters for the Aug. 17-24 convention are now expected to speak from remote locations.
Biden and Democrats for months have moved toward a virtual convention. More than 4,000 delegates already are casting mail ballots for Biden’s nomination and a platform that had been written and approved in meetings conducted online. But until Wednesday, it was expected that Biden and his running mate, whom he has yet to announce, would speak from Milwaukee.
And his presidential campaign announced Wednesday that it is reserving $280 million in digital and television ads through the fall, nearly twice what Trump’s team has reserved.
The Biden campaign said in a memo it’s reserving $220 million in television airtime and $60 million in digital ads, in contrast to the $147 million the Trump campaign has reserved, according to a review of Kantar/cmag data. Both campaigns can add to or subtract from their reservations at any time.
Biden is reserving airtime in 15 states, which includes a number of traditional swing states — Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Florida — as well as a number of historically Republican states, including Arizona, Georgia and Texas, and a few traditional swing states that seemed to be moving away from Democrats in recent years, such as Ohio and Iowa.