Dems stand down on DNC complaints after aggressive pressure campaign

“No doubt about it, they were trying to twist arms and break legs.”

A group of furious House Democrats was prepared to publicly repudiate an effort to nominate Joe Biden before the convention. An aggressive intraparty pressure campaign has convinced those lawmakers to stand down — for now.

Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) told POLITICO he is no longer sending his missive to the Democratic National Committee after the party agreed to delay a vote to nominate Biden until at least Aug. 1. The letter urged DNC members against holding a virtual roll call, instead of the customary timing during the convention in Chicago later next month.

While Huffman said the DNC’s move was welcome news “for now,” he and others still had major concerns about the effort to confirm Biden as the nominee virtually, before the convention.

“This buys time. There is still time for a course correction,” Huffman said.

As of Wednesday morning, at least 30 House Democrats were planning to sign onto the letter — with at least twice that number privately supportive of the effort but unwilling to go public, Huffman said. But in the last 24 hours, many of those Democrats faced strong pressure from state parties, labor groups and the DNC itself not to sign onto the letter, according to two other people familiar with the conversations.

“No doubt about it, they were trying to twist arms and break legs,” Huffman said about the pressure campaign.

Huffman’s decision not to go forward has frustrated some Democrats who have been struggling to channel their discontent with the party and Biden’s fate atop the ticket. Many saw the letter — which would have included members who have not previously spoken out against Biden — as a potentially critical step toward moving forward, provoking more discussion about how to encourage the president to step aside.

“Despite almost unanimous agreement about what needs to happen, colleagues are remarkably fearful of retribution if they put their heads above water,” a House Democrat who signed the letter said Wednesday.

Wednesday morning, in an effort to slow down the process amid concerns about transparency, the Democratic National Convention Rules Committee co-chairs told panel members in a letter that they would “propose a framework for how best to proceed” at their Friday meeting — holding off on setting a nomination date until next week but saying it would be no earlier than Aug. 1. The delay is an implicit acknowledgment of the ongoing criticism that the DNC is moving forward with the virtual roll call vote, prior to the official convention in mid-August.

“This idea of jamming this in mid-July never made any sense and was just going to divide us and undermine our unity and morale at the worst time,” Huffman said. “But we may still have some tough conversations over an August virtual roll call.”

“I have not called on the president to step aside, but I am among the members who are just deeply perplexed that the president thinks he is tied or winning in the polls,” he added.

The DNC’s decision to delay came after intense lobbying from House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, according to two people familiar with the discussions. The House Democratic leader relayed members' concerns to the DNC. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer was also involved in convincing the DNC to delay, according to a person familiar with the effort. The existence of Huffman's letter came up in those conversations.

Schumer and Jeffries spoke to one another and both agreed to make the push, according to a person familiar with their conversation.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the co-chair of the DNC rules committee and the chair of the Democratic Governors Association, called Biden campaign Chair Jen O'Malley Dillon on Tuesday to relay concerns about DNC roll call vote from other governors and members of Congress, according to a person directly familiar with the conversation.

Major Democratic donors have also pressured former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Jeffries, Schumer and Walz to stop the virtual roll call altogether, according to another person directly familiar with the private conversations.

At least some Democrats on the Huffman letter had wanted to send it despite the DNC’s latest step.

As of earlier Wednesday, those who signed onto the letter had been told the draft would simply be edited and would go out as planned.

Ursula Perano contributed to this report.