Category Archives: 2024 Convention

Convention wrapup

By Matt | Published September 8, 2024

Some odds and ends after the Chicago gathering:

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Thursday DNC Schedule

By Matt | Published August 22, 2024

It’s time:

5:30 PM

Call to Order Continue Reading...

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Wednesday DNC Schedule

By Matt | Published August 21, 2024

Bill Clinton and Tim Walz. Pelosi and Shapiro. They will all be hard-pressed to top the Obama speeches last night:

5:30 PM

Call to Order Continue Reading...

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Tuesday DNC Schedule

By Matt | Published August 20, 2024

It’s Obama-time:

Program Schedule: Democratic National Convention Night 2

“A Bold Vision for America’s Future” Continue Reading...

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Monday DNC Schedule

By Matt | Published August 19, 2024

First the highlights. The complete schedule follows:

5:15 PM – 10:15 PM

Call to Order Continue Reading...

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2024 Democratic Convention starts tomorrow

By Matt | Published August 18, 2024

The latest news:

  • Convention programming will air live from the United Center in Chicago between 6:15-11 PM Eastern/5:15-10 PM Central on Monday, and 7-11 PM Eastern/6-10 PM Central for all other days. Monday’s theme is ‘For The People”.
  • You can watch a livestream of the convention on all platforms, including, get this, “DemConvention.com/watch“.  Wow! So close!  All they needed to do was ask for our domain. We would have gladly lent it out for the week!
  • The Pro-Palestinian protests are full steam ahead.
  • And the unofficial roll call will be held on Tuesday

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The DNC starts in two days!

By Matt | Published August 17, 2024

Here’s the latest news for the 2024 Democratic Convention which starts on Monday in Chicago:

Here’s a look inside the United Center:

  • Main Speaker List: Monday: Biden and Hillary Clinton. Tuesday: Obama. Wednesday: Bill Clinton and Walz. Harris will close it out on Thursday.
  • Here’s an excellent behind the scenes view on what its like under the podium of a democratic convention
  • While every delegate will still get a bag of coffee beans as a nod to a cup of “Joe,” the convention has had to do a quick pivot to Harris.
  • Can’t get a credential?  There’s a watch party being held at Soldier Field
  • And they’ve raised $95 million for the convention

 

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And the Next Vice-President Is?

By tmess2 | Published August 4, 2024

Democrats have had to act on a very compressed schedule recently.  This compressed schedule is caused by two things:  1) The sudden withdrawal of Joe Biden from the race on July 21; and 2) Ohio Republicans.

On the second issue, for almost five decades now, the tradition has been that, in almost every election cycle, the party in the White House has held their convention between August 15 and the week after Labor Day.  Despite this tradition, some states (including Ohio) have set a deadline for certifying the presidential and vice-presidential candidates before the end of August.  Despite this nominal deadline, in every cycle, these states (having made whatever point they intended to make) grant a waiver to any party holding their convention after the deadline.  This year, however, Ohio waited to long to enact a statutory waiver which creates an ambiguous situation.  Ohio’s new law will push the deadline to after the Democratic convention, but that new law does not take effect until September 1.   The current law, however, has a deadline of August 7.  So, if the Democrats wait until after the convention, their certification will be untimely under current law and then, maybe, become timely under the new law.  But that would require hoping for courts to do the right thing in interpreting the law, and, despite the guarantees to the contrary by Republican officials in Ohio, it is as certain as the sun rising in the morning that some Republican would challenge any “late certification.”

As a result, the Democrats have been acting as if August 7 is still the deadline in Ohio.  Thus, the virtual roll call for President will be concluded by 6 p.m. on August 6.  And Vice-President Harris has until just before the close of business on August 7 to name her vice-presidential nominee.  While  normally, we would expect to see this pick made on the eve of the convention (in other words around August 14-16), the pick has to be made within the next seventy-two hours. Continue Reading...

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The Rules Package

By tmess2 | Published July 24, 2024

We now know officially the process that will be used to pick the Democratic nominee.  The Rules Committee of the Convention (which is a different body than the Rules and Bylaws Committee of the Democratic National Committee) formally adopted the rules for the convention in their meeting today.

As an initial point, the rules as a whole have been a work in progress for several months.  The decision of President Biden to withdraw required some modifications, but the general concepts were being drafted before this last weekend.  Additionally, one factor in the timetable set forth in the rules is the issue of Ohio.  While Ohio has passed a statute moving their deadline for certifying a nominee from the current date of August 7, that bill does not take effect until September 1.  As such, it is unclear what the deadline in Ohio really is.  To be on the safe side, the rules are acting as if August 7 is still the deadline.

The other thing to note is that a good chunk of the concepts in the proposal date back to prior conventions.  For a long time, both parties have had rules requiring potential candidates to demonstrate certain levels of support to get their names formally put forward on the convention floor.  In the old days, this process involved floor speeches putting the names “in nomination.”  As such, the rules were designed to prevent spending all night getting every candidate who had the support of a single delegate placed in nomination.   In the past, delegates actually physically signed the pledges of support for the potential candidates with the deadline being shortly before the roll call vote.  With COVID in 2020, the party went to a virtual vote with pledges of support being handled electronically. Continue Reading...

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Don’t think we’re getting a contested convention

By Matt | Published July 21, 2024

With President Biden dropping out of the 2024 race, the endorsements for VP Harris from potential competitors are flowing in. Newsom, Buttigieg, Whitmer have all endorsed Harris for the Democratic nomination or at least said they would not run themselves.  As some have noted, it’s similar to how the party coalesced behind Biden in 2020 just before Super Tuesday.

Marianne Williamson has said she is running, and Joe Manchin is making noise, but, remember, these are all Biden delegates who will make the decision. Unless a mainstream Democrat runs against Harris, the nomination will be hers without a fight.

Update: Tmess2 makes good points below, but the North Carolina delegation just announced unanimous support for Harris.  It’s actually shades of the smoke-filled rooms of years gone past – but – without a mainstream Democrat to run against her, Harris will be the nominee. Continue Reading...

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