‘Virtual conventions’ may be as good — or better — this presidential year

With the coronavirus pandemic growing more severe by the day and “stay-at-home” directives in force across the country, it seems likely the political parties will be forced to rethink their national conventions this summer. Although many businesses may be open and operating by July, it’s hard to imagine that these massive partisan gatherings will be deemed safe. As The Atlantic’s Joe Pinsker explained, “Come summer, Americans might get restaurants but no music festivals, offices but no crowded beaches, bars with spaced-out seating.”

For most party activists, this seems almost unimaginable. A presidential year without party conventions? No collective ritual to forge party unity and rally activists to the cause of the fall campaign. No lauding the presidential ticket in speeches with the hopes that a wider public is persuaded to support the party’s nominee. No overarching campaign narrative-setting and no grandiose image-making. The last time that happened was 1828 — the presidential cycle before the national party conventions were invented.

Still, as important as the conventions are to partisans, they aren’t that interesting to most Americans. With presidential nominees decided in the primaries and nominees announcing their vice presidential picks before the conventions start, they’re simply not the spectator sport that they once were.

While having to cancel the national conventions will result in economic losses for the previously selected host cities (Milwaukee for the Democrats and Charlotte, N.C., for the Republicans), there may be an opportunity for the parties to engage more Americans with their nationwide, streaming programming of politicians and party delegates convening online in small gatherings of 10 or fewer from their home states.

By opening up the agenda in between the business meetings and high-profile speeches to include virtual town halls on a variety of policy issues, the parties could solicit audience participation from a far larger number of partisans than those who could be present in the convention hall. They can host interactive conversations with the party’s rising stars.

And rather than only hearing how great each state is during the Roll Call of the States, the national parties could coordinate with the state parties to produce and present two-minute videos showcasing the uniqueness of each state delegation that would be aired before each announced their delegate votes.

They could even schedule live musical acts to join in the online festivities from empty concert halls, as Vince Gill, Brad Paisley, and Marty Stuart did at the Grand Ole Opry.

With the likelihood that large campaign rallies and in-person grassroots outreach activities also may be limited this fall, the parties need to start thinking about how they can make their virtual conventions truly national. This appears to be even more of an imperative for the Democrats than the Republicans, given the recent polling that showed former vice president Joe Biden “with only bare majority support within his party and a massive enthusiasm gap in a November matchup against President Donald Trump.”

Intriguingly, were the parties successful at energizing more of the public this summer with their online programming than with their past media spectacles, it may be that in-person national party conventions would fail to be resurrected in future cycles. It is impossible to predict whether any of the changes will persist. Still, since the Iowa caucuses’ tabulating app meltdown, many already are weighing reforms to the presidential primary system.

Political innovations tend to occur on the heels of catastrophe, rather than by the hands of the ingenious. This novel virus appears to be forcing the parties towards novel solutions. Whichever party best adapts to this fraught environment will win in November. Game on.  

Lara M. Brown is director of the Graduate School of Political Management at George Washington University. Follow her on Twitter @LaraMBrownPhD.