Democratic strategist: Coronavirus may require scrapping political conventions [View all]

WASHINGTON — The race for the White House against the backdrop of the coronavirus will scramble this summer’s political conventions, requiring the political parties to scrap their planned gatherings and replace them with “virtual” online events, veteran political strategist Joe Trippi predicted on the Yahoo News “Skullduggery” podcast on Wednesday.

“Both parties have to prepare for some kind of virtual convention ... where delegates can vote by phone securely,” said Trippi, who pioneered an internet-driven campaign strategy when he was campaign manager for upstart Democratic candidate Howard Dean in 2004.

Calling the conventions “produced television shows for the party,” Trippi said the Republican and Democratic national committees will likely treat conventions as one night of a produced television show followed by a second night during which candidates give speeches and announce vice presidential picks.

Trippi, author of “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Democracy, the Internet, and the Overthrow of Everything,” said that if delegates need to vote on the party platform or undertake a rules debate, it would likely “happen virtually, on a conference call ... unless this changes quickly, and I don’t think its gonna change quickly enough.”

https://news.yahoo.com/skullduggery-joe-trippi-dnc-rnc-coronavirus-011805750.html