DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee advances another 31 state delegate selection plans for 2024

Some plans have bigger issues to iron out than others, but the streamlined consideration showcases a party intent on renominating and reelecting the president

As summer stretches closer to August and a heat wave grips vast areas of the US, one could forgive anyone for wanting to stay inside, safely tucked away in a room somewhere with air conditioning. That may be even truer of those in the typically muggy nation’s capital. But as the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee gathered in DC to consider state party delegate selection plans for a second session this summer on Friday, July 28, one could have left with the impression that members of the panel wanted to be anywhere else but beating the heat in a Washington conference room.

In rapid fire succession, the committee teed up proposed delegate selection plans for 2024 from state party after state party, voting them conditionally compliant and quickly bringing another plan to the fore. The RBC breezed through 31 plans in all so fast that the planned after-session happy hour shifted up to 2pm. That is another way to beat the heat.

No, the committee did not race through consideration of delegate selection plans willy nilly just to get to drinks a few hours early. But they were able to knock out the meeting’s agenda in what seemed like record time for the panel not known for the speed of its deliberations. And they did that, first, because the controversy confronted in this series of plans was minimal. Iowa did not come up. Neither did New Hampshire. The plans considered were the low hanging fruit and the RBC dispatched with them, often with little pushback from a membership that leaned on the recommendations of staff.

Moreover, that last part is important. That there was little resistance from the committee members is due in some measure to the work that the RBC staff has done with state parties. There is a give and take between staff and the state parties to, on the one hand, identify issues in delegate selection plan, and on the other, to quickly devise remedies for them. Part of that is very likely that the problems are more easily corrected, but it is also a demonstration of a national party and state parties (not without exception) being on the same page when it comes to the goals of the 2024 delegate selection process. All want to see the president renominated and transition as smoothly as possible to a general election phase that from their perspective reelects him and other Democrats down ballot. And that is the luxury that incumbent parties often have; the head start they have over any party that has to navigate a competitive nomination process.

However, streamlined though the July 28 meeting may have been, it was not without news. Below is a look at some of what happened and what lies ahead for the Rules and Bylaws Committee and the 2024 delegate selection process.