As long time readers of DCW know, the party in the White House gets to have their convention second.  This is just an unwritten understanding between the two parties, and has been in place since 1936.  Convention junkies also know that when the Summer Olympics are scheduled in mid-summer, the earlier convention will often be in mid-July, and the second convention in mid/late August.  2020 shows this perfectly, with the Dem convention scheduled for July 13-16, the GOP convention scheduled for Aug 24-27, and the Summer Olympics in between scheduled for July 24 – Aug 9.

Except, the Olympics are now postponed to 2021.

Which leads to the question, could the Democrats postpone their convention a month to the week of Aug 17, to allow the COVID-19 situation to stabilize? (I would note, they could have done this even if the Olympics were not cancelled, but it was the cancellation that led me to consider the move).

For the Democrats to even consider this seriously, two big questions would have to be answered:

1) Will the health situation really improve enough that the convention could not be held in mid-July, but could be held in mid-August? I would think the odds are not likely, but, it would not be good if the Dems had to hold a virtual convention, but the GOP got to hold a real one 5 weeks later. If the conventions were a week apart, at least both parties will be in the same boat.

2) Could the arrangements with all the venues and hotels be moved to the new week? Under normal circumstances, absolutely not. But, there are no non-postponed events planned at the Fiserv Forum in this period until Aug 22.  And while I’m sure there are other events still planned that have hotels reserved, who knows if they will go forward. And Milwaukee would go to great lengths to try and keep the convention alive.

I think it’s pretty clear both conventions will have to go virtual in 2020. (We’ll have more on the GOP convention in a future post).  But I think postponing the Democratic Convention to mid-August is an option the DNC needs to start considering.