Joe Biden to accept presidential nomination in Milwaukee but there will be NO delegates over coronavirus fears
JOE Biden will accept the Democratic presidential nomination in Milwaukee, the Democratic National Committee announced on Wednesday.
But delegates are being urged not to attend the August convention in due to fears.
reported that due to concerns surrounding the COVID-19 crisis, the committee confirmed that the party will ask delegates to skip the convention to stop the spread.
They will be asked to tend to their business remotely - like millions of Americans who have been working from home since the pandemic shuttered most of the from mid-March.
A remote process where delegates can cast their votes on convention matters is being developed and will include the presidential nomination, while the Dems will also host events in several satellite cities.
Proceedings will shift from the Fiserv Forum to the Wisconsin Center, which is smaller and less expensive.
The National Committee moved their big events to Jacksonville, , after and officials clashed over holding a there in August.
Milwaukee will anchor four nights of programming from August 17-20, according to the WSJ, and satellite locations may include Biden's native Pennsylvania.
The committee, chaired by Rep. Bennie Thompson of , also hired disease experts to mitigate the chance of contagion.
“Everything is on the line this November, which is why we must find creative and forward-looking ways to organize, mobilize and unite our party around our shared values at the convention so that we can launch Joe Biden to victory this fall,” the convention’s chief executive Joe Solmonese said.
The news comes after Biden and the DNC combined managed to raise over $81 million in May, marking their largest funding haul yet in the lead up to .
On Monday, an email sent out to Biden supporters stated that they raised nearly $81K and that the average online donation was around $30 – and more than half of these Biden fans were new.
His campaign has reportedly trebled online donors since February, with educators making up the bulk of them, according to .
The former Vice President is ahead of Trump in , taking notable leads among women and non-white voters.
Some groups that traditionally lean Republican were also favoring Biden, according to the national poll of registered voters and Siena College.
Biden was ahead of Trump by 14 percentage points in the poll, getting 50 percent of the vote compared to Trump's 36 percent.
The remaining 14 percent fell into the "other" category - meaning they would vote for another candidate, would not vote or are currently undecided.
Among , Biden is way ahead: he is 74 percentage points ahead of Trump with Black voters, and he's 39 percentage points ahead of Trump with Hispanic voters.
Biden also appears to have an advantage with women and young voters, even more so than in the 2016 election.
White women with college degrees currently support Biden over Trump by 39 percentage points, while exit polls from the 2016 election showed the same group favored Clinton by just 7 percentage points, according to the Times.
Biden was leading Trump in voters in every age group, except those aged 50 to 64. Voters 65 and older favored the former VP by two percentage points, according to the poll.
Many white voters aged 65 and older, which had been one of Trump's strongest constituencies, disapprove of how the president has been handling recent events.
About two-fifths of white voters over 65 said they disapproved of how Trump handled both the COVID-19 pandemic and the call for racial justice, according to the Times.
Trump does still hold a fairly with no college degree, leading the former VP by 19 percentage points.
The President also has a relatively high approval rating when it comes to the economy, with 50 percent rating him positively.
Trump's approval rating is significantly lower when it comes to how he has handled the coronavirus.
Nearly 60 percent of voters disapprove of how Trump has handled the pandemic, including self-described moderate voters, the Times reported.
But Trump has lashed out at his Democratic opponent for his "weakness" when it came to defending the US .
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Speaking at in on Tuesday, the President criticized Biden's supportive stance on the protests.
Some of these demonstrations in and Seattle resulted in and toppling .
"Could you imagine if Sleepy Joe ever became president?" Trump asked his supporters at the Phoenix megachurch. "This country would be a mess – they would rip down everything."