Originally scheduled to be held July 13–16, 2020, at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee just a week before the planned start of the Tokyo Summer Olympics, the convention was postponed to August 17–20, 2020, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in the United States.

Due to pandemic restraints, Milwaukee's host city role was decreased to that of a headquarters for the broadcast, with most of the convention activities occurring remotely from sites across the United States.

[14] Milwaukee's success in bidding for the convention was viewed in some circles as an upset, as the other two remaining finalist cities were not only larger metropolitan areas, but also had significant experience hosting major events such as Super Bowls.

[43] In previous elections, such as the 2008 presidential primary, candidates would suspend their candidacies rather than formally withdraw, allowing their already pledged delegates to attend the convention and pick up new ones along the way.

[83][84] On July 24, 2020, the Milwaukee Common Council passed an ordinance that would ban a long list of items from the security footprint, including air rifles, nunchucks, drones, containers of bodily fluids, glass bottles, and coolers.

[92] There had been talk of potentially limiting boat traffic on the Milwaukee River by placing a temporary stay on all bridge openings, but this security measure did not materialize.

[71] The convention organizers established a custom video control room in the exhibit hall on the third floor of the Wisconsin Center,[97][98] designed to handle hundreds of feeds from across the country, in order to accommodate the remote speeches.

[101][63][102] Speakers appeared from various "satellite locations", including key studios in Los Angeles, New York City, and at the Chase Center on the Riverfront in Wilmington, Delaware.

[109] The political podcast Pod Save America also aired a "Live from the Democratic National Couch-vention" special prior to the August 20 broadcast, which featured the premiere of its new documentary short Dress Rehearsal, which chronicled the April 2020 state Supreme Court election in Wisconsin.

Celebrities participating in the "after party" broadcast included Alyssa Milano, Aubrey Plaza, Liza Koshy, Zooey Deschanel, Michelle Kwan, Nicole Ehrlich, Cat Cora, Jaime Camil, Elena Delle Donne, Jason Winston George, Keith Powell, and Neil Casey.

Also featured in the "after party" program were political figures such as Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez, Senator Chris Coons, and Biden campaign advisor Symone Sanders.

[77] The convention's parliamentarians were House majority leader Steny Hoyer, Helen McFadden, Sarah E. Merkle, and state senator Yvanna Cancela of Nevada.

"[137] Instead of a traditional in-person roll call, delegates voted remotely using a system the planning committee crafted that enabled them to cast their ballots via email, with unique identifiers for security.

"[209] Bloomberg likened the prospect reelecting Trump to rehiring or working for, "someone who ran your business into the ground, and who always does what's best for him or her, even when it hurts the company, and whose reckless decisions put you in danger".

[213] Clinton urged voters not to repeat the result of the 2016 election in which Trump had defeated her in the United States Electoral College, thus winning the presidency.

She mentioned that the previous day had marked the centennial of the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which granted nationwide women's suffrage.

[158] While referencing a number of issues that plagued the nation, Cuomo's speech primarily focused on criticizing President Donald Trump's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In her vice-presidential nomination acceptance speech on the third night of the convention, Kamala Harris declared that she and Biden will, if elected, tackle issues facing the United States, including racial injustices.

"[222] Whenever we look to this White House for some leadership or consolation or any semblance of steadiness, what we get instead is chaos, division, and a total and utter lack of empathy...Let me be as honest and clear as I possibly can.

Former first lady of the United States Michelle Obama filmed her speech on the opening night of the convention from her personal residence in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.

[225] Obama directly invoked the murder of George Floyd and killing of Breonna Taylor by law enforcement earlier in 2020, which had become central flash points of ongoing protests and unrest that are considered part of the Black Lives Matter movement.

[224] Obama touted the virtues of Biden's character, declaring him a "profoundly decent man", that, "knows what it takes to rescue an economy, beat back a pandemic, and lead our country.

[226] In her remarks Pelosi painted President Donald Trump and Republican United States Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell as dual obstacles to progress.

[231] Schumer argued that America will benefit from both electing the ticket of Biden and Harris, as well as from flipping control of the United States Senate from Republican to Democratic.

[172] This made Malcolm Kenyatta, Sam Park, and Robert Garcia the first openly gay speakers in a keynote slot at a Democratic National Convention.

Garcia, Kenyatta, and Park became the first openly LGBTQ speakers to deliver a keynote address at a Democratic National Convention, with all three being openly-gay men.

[256] However, during the Democratic and Republican conventions of 2016, the length of prime time coverage provided by the "Big Three" domestic television networks was also one hour per night .

[258] In 2020, PBS, C-SPAN and domestic 24-hour cable news channels including CNN and MSNBC all broadcast both hours of each night of the Democratic Party convention.

[264] In addition, after the downsizing, but even before it was that Biden and other speakers would no longer be traveling to Milwaukee, broadcasters had already planned to significantly decrease the size of crews they would send to capture the convention in comparison to previous years.

[277] Night one of the Democratic convention had 18.8 million viewers across six major, traditional television (NBC, CBS, ABC) and cable networks (FNC, CNN, MSNBC) tracked by Nielsen.