Mayor Rory Hoskins has officially been elected as a 7th congressional district delegate for presidential candidate Joe Biden, beating former Illinois governor Pat Quinn and Metropolitan Water Reclamation District (MWRD) board commissioner Marcelino Garcia, among others.
Also elected as Biden delegates from the 7th district are Emma Mitts, Chicago 37th Ward alderman; Patricia Dowell, Chicago 3rd Ward alderman; Barbara McGowan, MWRD vice president; and Brendan Reilly, Chicago 42nd Ward alderman.
Claudia Moreno-Nunez, Dominique Coronel, and Miguel Bautista were elected as Sanders delegates.
Hoskins, who has organized fundraisers for Biden in the past, said he’s honored to have been elected and was pleased when he heard the results, which were announced last week.
“It’s nice to be part of the process,” said Hoskins, although he also said there’s some uncertainty about and changes planned for the Milwaukee event in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Originally scheduled for July 13, the Democratic convention will now begin on August 17, a week before the Republic convention in Charlotte. There has been some talk about a virtual convention, but Politico reported April 2 that DNC sources and a Biden campaign member “would like to have a live event as long as it can be done safely.”
However, according to Politico, the DNC is scaling back original plans. “People are going to be hurting,” a DNC official was reported as saying. “It’s not a time to be lavish.”
The original July date allowed Democrats to hold the convention before the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, according to CNN. But when the Olympics were delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the summer opened up for rescheduling.
Talks had begun in March about rescheduling but never took off until Biden spoke up, pushing for the event to be held later than originally planned.
