Democrats plan to nominate Biden virtually to avoid missing Ohio’s ballot deadline

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Democratic National Committee plans to hold a “virtual challenge” to nominate President Joe Biden before the party’s August convention — a tactic to get rid of Biden. increasing danger Ohio’s exclusion from the general election ballot.

Biden’s campaign and the DNC announced the move as they opened the state legislature here on Tuesday Special session by Republican Governor Mike DeWine to resolve the issue.

The Democratic convention — where the party traditionally nominates its presidential and vice presidential nominees — will be held after Ohio’s Aug. 7 primary to confirm the nominees. Ohio GOP lawmakers, who hold the majority in the state House and Senate, have avoided passing a bill that would have eased the deadline for Biden without voting on unrelated campaign finance legislation that Democrats described as a “poison pill.”

DNC Chair Jaime Harrison said in a statement that Democrats “will bring this plane down on our own.” “Through the virtual recall, we will ensure that Republicans cannot undermine our democracy through incompetence or partisan gerrymandering, and that Ohioans can exercise their right to vote for the presidential candidate of their choice.”

The DNC’s rules and bylaws committee is expected to vote on a resolution on June 4 authorizing the virtual convocation. DNC members will vote on the resolution in the coming weeks, and once passed, the virtual nomination process can continue. Party officials liken the approach to the 2020 virtual convention during the pandemic.

The Biden campaign and the DNC have resisted moving forward with such plans for weeks. Ohio’s certification deadlines have come before both parties’ nominating conventions in the past, and in those cases both parties have dealt with the issue in a cynical, clean way.

But DeWine, calling for a special session, asked lawmakers to both fix Biden’s ballot and take action to ban foreign money in state ballot campaigns. The latter measure was attached to an earlier state Senate version of the Biden-related bill, but the state House never voted on it, prompting controversy and DeWine’s call for a special session.

“Once again, Republican politicians in the statehouse are playing politics with our democracy by trying to prevent Ohio voters from choosing who they want to be president, but Democrats will not change Ohioans’ ability to hold their government accountable to presidential elections,” Ohio Democratic Party Chairwoman Liz Walters said in a statement.

Ohio Senate Democratic leader Niki Antonio announced a change in strategy at a news conference Tuesday.

“The first thing we did was we asked the Biden campaign to make a statement that they’re going to do today and reassure the people of Ohio that Joe Biden is going to vote because they’re going to the election. An alternative direction to find a solution that doesn’t go to the Ohio Legislature,” Antonio said.