D.N.C. Will Proceed With Biden Nomination, but Delays First Steps

Democrats will nominate President Biden for re-election in a virtual roll call, but will delay setting a date for the delegate vote until next week and will not begin it until August, members of the party convention’s rules committee were told in a letter on Wednesday.

The decision to push back setting the date means Mr. Biden’s nomination will not be formalized before the end of July, though the letter makes clear that the party intends to have it completed by Aug. 7 in order to avoid any risk of a legal challenge to placing Mr. Biden on the ballot in Ohio.

The letter, from the co-chairs of the party convention’s rules committee, Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota and Leah Daughtry, a longtime Democratic Party official, says that no virtual voting will begin before Aug. 1.

Mr. Walz, appearing on Wednesday at a news conference in Milwaukee on the sidelines of the Republican National Convention, said the timing of the Democratic convention required a virtual nomination before delegates gather next month in Chicago. The process for the nomination, he said, is not being rushed.

“We just need to get it done,” he said.

How precisely the process will work is expected to be determined during the rules committee’s meeting on Friday.

“On Friday, we will propose a framework for how best to proceed,” Mr. Walz and Ms. Daughtry wrote in the letter, a copy of which was reviewed by The New York Times. “Next week, we will follow up with a second meeting to consider and adopt specific rules for that purpose.”

“No matter what may be reported, our goal is not to fast-track,” they say. “Our goals are to uphold our tradition of transparency, our commitment to an effective nominating process that delivers a nominee on all state ballots, and ultimately to