The Democratic National Committee announced today that presumptive Democratic nominee for president Joe Biden and other planned speakers will no longer be traveling to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for the party's convention in mid-August due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The national convention will instead be conducted virtually.
The party's convention was already planned to be a drastically scaled back affair in recognition of the COVID-19 dangers that would still be present in August, but the rapid rise of pandemic numbers in the United States over the last month made it evident that putting on even a scaled back in-person convention would present unacceptable risks to attendees. Republicans are also planning a mostly virtual convention after COVID-19 cases in Florida, where their convention had been moved to, skyrocketed in recent weeks.
A party press release announcing the change emphasized that the change was made "in order to prevent risking the health of our host community as well as the convention’s production teams, security officials, community partners, media and others necessary to orchestrate the event.
"Today’s announcement represents a small adjustment to the overall planning, as the majority of speeches and segments were already taking place in locations across the country. Democrats will offer four nights of programming, which will include a mix of both pre-recorded segments and live broadcasts from locations across the country."