The delay of the Democratic National Convention forced by the coronavirus means likely nominee Joe Biden must wait until late summer before beginning to spend millions in campaign funds to defeat President Trump.
Federal law prohibits candidates for national office from spending general election funds before securing their party’s nomination. Even if Bernie Sanders suspends his campaign for the Democratic nomination immediately, Biden cannot claim the crown until he receives a ratifying vote of delegates to the party’s quadrennial national convention. Originally scheduled for mid-July, the Democratic National Committee kicked the gathering to the week of Aug. 17, costing Biden an entire month of control over his resources.
“You always want to have an earlier convention,” a veteran Democratic operative said Friday. “It just allows you to start spending general election funds earlier.”
The DNC is dismissing those concerns, expressing confidence the party can bridge the gap and protect its nominee from being swamped by a Trump campaign and Republican National Committee that are cash-rich and fully deployed in every important 2020 battleground. The Biden campaign declined to comment.
“The DNC has been building a massive battleground infrastructure that will help make Trump a one-term president,” party spokesman David Bergstein told the Washington Examiner. “Our offices, on-the-ground organizers, and state-of-the-art data program are already up and running and will help ensure our eventual nominee enters the general election prepared to win.”
As the former vice president turns his attention to Trump, raising resources to cut into the president’s mammoth financial and organizational advantage is a major priority. History shows waiting to spend it hurts.
In 2012, that dilemma was a considerable challenge for Mitt Romney. Now a Utah senator, Romney that year was the Republican presidential nominee versus Barack Obama. Throughout the summer, up until the GOP convention in Tampa in late August, Romney absorbed millions of dollars in attack advertising from the Obama campaign, with limited ability to strike back. That experience led Reince Priebus, then the RNC’s chairman, to schedule the 2016 convention in Cleveland for mid-July.
“We had to access the cash,” Priebus said. “We also wanted more time to campaign for the general election as a team.”
Trump is set to be renominated in Charlotte the week of Aug. 24. But as the incumbent, the president is not as challenged by the spending rule as Biden. Donors have separate limits on donations to candidates for the primaries and the general election. While Biden has had to spend his primary donations winning the Democratic nomination, Trump has had no serious GOP challenger and has been able — and can continue — to use the money collected for his primary to attack Biden. Plus, as president, he already has a tight grip on the party machinery needed to secure his election.
For Biden, a later convention could also stretch the primary contest by an extra month, giving the former vice president less time to consolidate the party and integrate it with his campaign. Sanders, meanwhile, could gain more time to push the former vice president further left. Should Sanders continue to fade, however, the Biden campaign could accelerate the shift toward battling Trump.
Some political operatives in both parties say a delayed convention will not have a lasting negative impact on Biden, arguing much has changed about presidential campaigns since 2012. Already, a flush Democratic super PAC is spending big against Trump in battleground states. This group is part of a robust liberal ecosphere of political groups expected to buy time for Biden prior to his accepting the Democratic nomination in late August.
And with the coronavirus poised to dominate the fall campaign, some Democratic insiders believe Trump’s edge in money and organization will be tempered by the fallout from the pandemic.
“The fact they’re going to go dry for a month won’t make one iota of difference in the grand scheme,” said T.J. Rooney, the former chairman of the Pennsylvania Democratic Party, when asked to assess the risk to Biden because of a delay in access to general election funds. “The Trump campaign’s attacks are going to be blunted and muted because all that’s going to matter in a few short months is what [the president] does in a few short weeks.”
