Democrats Postpone Convention, and a Test of Wills With Republicans Looms

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April 3, 2020 6:08 AM

WASHINGTON — The Democratic National Committee on Thursday postponed its presidential convention because of the coronavirus, moving it from mid-July to mid-August, and making it the largest political event to be upended by the public health crisis sweeping the country.

Democrats Postpone Convention, and a Test of Wills With Republicans Looms

The convention will still be held in Milwaukee, as planned, the week of Aug. 17, officials said, a week before Republicans plan to gather in Charlotte, North Carolina, to renominate President Donald Trump. The adjacent dates mean that both parties will be using expert health data from the same time frame to assess the safety of bringing together thousands of people at one event — and, ultimately, deciding whether the benefit of staging the conventions outweighs the medical risks.

The timing sets the stage for a high-stakes test of wills and judgment over the next four months between Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, the likely Democratic nominee, as the public health crisis paralyzes the country through the summer. Neither will want to be the first to cancel his convention.

The decision to postpone the Democratic convention was made over the previous two days, officials involved in the planning said, but the issue was amplified Wednesday night by Biden, who called for rescheduling the convention during an appearance on “The Tonight Show.”

Tom Perez, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said he did not consider moving the event to September, after the Republicans’, and was averse to conducting a virtual convention that would be less likely to attract hours of television coverage.

“We’re going to hold a very exciting and safe convention in Wisconsin to highlight our nominee and to make sure that people know the values of the Democratic Party and what we’re fighting for,” he said in a telephone interview.

Advisers to Biden and senior party leaders stressed Thursday that they remained flexible on the format and that they would be guided by the principle of safety first.

“There are things you can do online, but there is something about the communal spirit that is important and people feed off of,” said David Axelrod, a senior official in Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns. “From a television standpoint it’s hard to have the same impact if you’re cobbling together a series of remotes.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times .

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