Instead of packing a week’s worth of clothes and comfortable shoes for a trip to Wisconsin, the Georgia delegates to the Democratic National Convention are ensuring their laptops are charged and refrigerators are stocked.
Rome City Commissioner Wendy Davis is a DNC veteran; her first convention was in 1988. Now that everything has gone virtual this year, she will miss the parties, the balloon drops and meeting Democratic activists from 56 other states and territories.
“It’s almost like a family reunion kind of thing, but a really big family,” she said.
To capture a sense of (remote) enthusiasm, Davis and other delegates have embraced the social media tools that presumptive presidential nominee Joe Biden’s campaign sent out — a collection of banners, memes, GIFs and hashtags to promote the convention and the candidates.
But there are perks to moving the convention entirely online. The Georgia delegation’s hotel was near Chicago’s O’Hare Airport, which would have meant an hour-or-longer commute each way to the downtown Milwaukee convention center. The days would have been long, packed with multiple caucuses and special events scheduled back-to-back and often simultaneously.
Now, Davis and the other delegates can hop from room to room with the click of a button instead of hiking down long corridors. She won’t find herself running late to Democratic Municipal Officials meetings for local elected leaders because she stopped to chat with an old friend.
“In some ways, it will be easier to focus on these different DNC opportunities,” Davis said.
Such are the adjustments that Georgia’s 120 delegates and nine alternates will make this year, one of the many consequences of the still-raging COVID-19 pandemic. The convention starts Monday and ends Thursday with Biden’s acceptance speech.
Janel Green, a first-time delegate and well-known activist, had been looking forward to the trip to her hometown of Milwaukee for another reason: It was a chance to bury her father, who died last year of an illness.
She had to scrap those plans and cancel the trip, but she’s sympathetic.
“I’m so proud of the DNC for doing the right thing, the safe thing and doing this 100% virtual,” she said.
She is planning to set up nightly Zoom calls with a group of friends to watch each prime-time speech.
Savannah Mayor Van Johnson is attending his first Democratic convention, but he notes that the virtual environment makes it a first for all. Johnson said he has met some of the other delegates through virtual meetups, and he is excited to watch Biden and U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris accept their nominations.
He’s setting up camp in his living room and says he wants to be intentional about the events he attends throughout the day to give his eyes a break from looking at a screen all day.
“I want to be able to fully embrace and experience this; it’s history-making in so many ways,” he said.
The delegates will begin each day with an 8:30 a.m. meeting that is likely to feature state and national party leaders.
Historically, in-person conventions have kept delegates moving until the last speech ended around 11 p.m. Then they attended receptions and after-parties until the wee hours of the morning only to start over again.
The virtual convention and producers’ concerns about the limited attention span of a TV viewing audience have caused the prime-time speeches to be limited to just a two-hour block each night. Although there may be some disc jockeys spinning online for internet parties, the delegates have the luxury of rolling right out of bed and into their first meeting — brushed teeth and showers optional — or staying in bed all day with a tablet propped on a pillow.
DeKalb County Commissioner-elect Ted Terry, the former mayor of Clarkston, will be attending the convention from his living room. While he is disappointed that the meetings will not be in person, he is making the most of it by attending orientations and parties with other delegation members.
Terry has a plan to survive the long convention days.
“The key to long Zoom calls is to not just sit for five hours straight,” he said. “I might put on my headphones and do some stationary bicycling while the convention’s going on.”
How to watch:
The broadcast networks — ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS — have scheduled at least one hour of prime-time coverage each night.
The cable networks — CNN, FOX News and MSNBC — and the broadcast networks’ streaming platforms will have several hours of coverage each evening.
C-SPAN will broadcast and stream all official DNC activities for the duration of the convention.
Speeches and other events will stream on the DemConvention.com website, the Democratic National Convention app, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.
For daytime meetings, caucuses and other events, consult the full schedule on DemConvention.com and RSVP if necessary.
Monday’s lineup:
The national anthem will be sung remotely by a 57-member youth choir that includes a yet-to-be-identified Georgia representative. Scheduled speakers include New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo; U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, the veteran South Carolina congressman credited with saving Biden’s campaign; U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, the runner-up to Biden in the primary; and former first lady Michelle Obama.
Coming up:
Georgia’s Stacey Abrams and Sally Yates, a former acting U.S. attorney general, are scheduled to speak Tuesday. On Thursday, the convention’s final night, Atlanta’s Jermaine Dupri will host the pre-show and Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms will speak. A tribute to Congressman John Lewis will also happen sometime during the week.
