Would an early virtual roll call vote help Biden run out the clock?
That is one way of thinking about the DNC's alternate plan to nominate a presidential candidate, but not the only one.
Last week FHQ fielded a number of calls about what party rules could be triggered depending on what, if/when and how President Biden decides to opt out of the 2024 Democratic nomination race. Some asked about the proposed virtual roll call vote for which the Democratic National Committee began laying the groundwork early last month. Others took a more we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it approach to the possibility. That, in other words, it was too complicated to get into at that juncture.
And honestly FHQ has always looked at the virtual roll call as contingency planning by the DNC more than anything else. It is a tool the party has but not necessarily one it needs to use. Only, increasingly it — the virtual roll call — is being talked about as a break glass in case of emergency option in the context of the should he stay or should he go moment the Democratic Party coalition currently finds itself enmeshed. The chatter, then, has shifted to whether the party will use the virtual roll call as a means of expediting the nomination process and quelling the division within the party over whether the president should or will continue to be its standard bearer in the fall.
Whether that is the end goal is one thing. It certainly was not the intent of the virtual roll call resolution when it passed the Rules and Bylaws Committee on June 4. But increasingly the virtual roll call is being discussed in those terms: a way to speed things up and help the president run out the clock.
But, then again, that is just one way of thinking about any looming virtual roll call. There are others. For example…