(Bloomberg) The Democratic National Committee is considering formally nominating Joe Biden as early as mid-July to ensure that the president is on November ballots, while helping to stamp out intra-party chatter of replacing him after last week’s poor debate performance.
A potential date for Biden’s nomination is July 21, when the Democratic convention’s credentials committee meets virtually, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity. The panel is meeting to finalize procedures before the party’s convention in Chicago starts on Aug. 19.
Democrats had already planned to nominate Biden, 81, before the convention in order to ensure he appears on the ballot in Ohio, which had an Aug. 7 deadline for candidates to be certified.
That deadline has since been moved back, but the plans to nominate the president early could serve another purpose: helping to quell talk of a potential replacement or an open convention following Biden’s cataclysmic debate against Donald Trump. The president’s lackluster showing last Thursday sparked calls from some prominent Democrats for him to suspend his campaign in favor of passing the torch to someone else.
In the days since the debate, Biden’s allies have struck a defiant tone, angrily dismissing calls for the oldest president in US history to end his reelection campaign to make way for another contender. The incumbent president won about 99% of his party’s pledged delegates during the 2024 primary contest.
Still, even before the debate, polls showed Biden’s reelection effort bedeviled by voter concerns about his age and ability to fulfill a second term.
