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But the virtual convention is also a reminder that this is an election season unlike any other. The country, the economy and the campaign trail have all been upended by the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed almost 170,000 Americans. It has also reshaped daily American life and, in the political world, voting priorities and access to the ballot box.

The social and economic damage is particularly clear in Milwaukee, where businesses and residents had poured millions into preparations for the city’s most anticipated event in decades.

For a community that has long suffered from an inferiority complex, winning the convention over cities like Miami and Houston had served to lift Milwaukee’s civic self-esteem. But now it is not hard to find local Democrats depressed about the lost chance to showcase their city for a national audience, and the vanished revenue that would have come from an influx of some 50,000 visitors.

Marc Dulberger, a local businessman who said he poured $30,000 into different ventures in anticipation of the big event this summer, said the combined loss of revenue from professional sports leagues and the convention had been a personal financial disaster.

“No Brewers, no Bucks, no convention,” Mr. Dulberger said. “It’s the ghost convention now.”

Mayor Tom Barrett of Milwaukee lamented the loss of an expected $200 million in economic impact and said there was “huge disappointment” that the event was now virtual. Representative Gwen Moore, the longtime Milwaukee Democratic lawmaker, said the combination of the pandemic and the loss of the convention was a “double whammy.”

When Representative Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the convention’s chairman, gavels in the convention on Monday night, it will represent the culmination of a gradual five-month downsizing, chopped from 24 hours over all to eight hours.