It looks like the number of the Democratic Party’s elite superdelegates who are unbound by the will of the voters will get smaller for the 2020 election cycle.
Democrats vote to overhaul superdelegate system
By Evelyn Rupert
The Democratic Rules Committee voted overwhelmingly in favor of a major shift in the superdelegate system Saturday night after a deal was reached between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders supporters.
The committee approved nearly unanimously an amendment that preserves the existing superdelegate role for elected U.S. lawmakers and governors, but will bind the remaining superdelegates — roughly two-thirds — to primary and caucus results.
The Democratic Rules Committee voted overwhelmingly in favor of a major shift in the superdelegate system Saturday night after a deal was reached between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders supporters.
The committee approved nearly unanimously an amendment that preserves the existing superdelegate role for elected U.S. lawmakers and governors, but will bind the remaining superdelegates — roughly two-thirds — to primary and caucus results.
"The Commission shall make specific recommendations providing that Members of Congress, Governors, and distinguished party leaders remain unpledged and free to support their nominee of choice," reads the amendment, "but that remaining unpledged delegates be required to cast their vote at the Convention for candidates in proportion to the vote received for each candidate in their state."
Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee was the last to speak before voting started, and she said that primary votes for Sanders or Clinton "divide us no more."
"We will climb our journey of victory together, that our arms will be linked and we'll go to the floor of this great convention," she said. "For I see that mountain that we’ve been challenged to cover, and I am going to say we shall overcome and elect the next press of the United States, Hillary Rodham Clinton together, together, together."
The amendment was approved 158-6.
While this doesn’t go quite as far as I had hoped, it is a substantial improvement over the system as it is now constituted. Most importantly IMHO it would also change the dynamic early on in a presidential race by making it harder for any candidate to amass an early lead in superdelegates discouraging other potential entrants.
I’m sure the superdelegates are fine Democrats and by all means should attend the conventions, I just don’t think they deserve the privilege of being an unpledged delegate.
A welcome reform, coming on the eve of the Democratic convention.