A quiet pressure campaign is underway to push President Joe Biden’s formal nomination to begin as early as next week — a month before the party’s convention in Chicago — even as calls intensify within the highest ranks of the Democratic Party for Biden to reconsider his reelection bid.
There has been a push among some Biden allies to kick off the virtual roll call process as quickly as possible, three Democratic officials familiar with the discussions revealed. Two key Democratic committees have long been set to gather this coming Friday and Sunday to discuss the exact timeline for delegates across the country to start casting their votes. The earliest that voting could begin would be after the second meeting on Sunday.
Democrats have been planning for weeks to conclude the nomination process before August 7, well before the Chicago convention next month. However, if voting were to begin Sunday or soon thereafter, that would mark an aggressive timeline and draw fresh scrutiny from other Democrats eager for Biden to acknowledge his challenges and step aside.
The DNC virtual roll call process was initially put in place for the party to step around an issue in Ohio that threatened to leave Biden off the ballot in that state. Lawmakers in Ohio have since passed a law to make that issue moot, but the DNC has pointed to the potential of a legal challenge by Ohio Republicans for moving forward with the virtual roll call anyway.
