The Story:
On Saturday, August 25, the Democratic National Committee voted on a rule change for its presidential nominating process, so that if the 2020 nomination is contested going in to the convention, the superdelegates may be required to refrain from voting on the first ballot.
The Background:
The superdelegates are high profile party members, including Governors, members of Congress, and Mayors. They constitute 15% of the overall number of delegates, and their weight is generally seen as a self-protective measure by the party establishment.
In the 2016 primary season, most superdelegates supported Secretary Hillary Clinton as against the anti-establishment challenger, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt). This caused a good deal of resentment on the Sanders side, and even after the campaign this recent history contributed to a sense that the nominating process should be more open.
The Thing to Know:Â
That Clinton/Sanders animosity is an ongoing struggle. Saturday’s DNC vote was but one battle. At least one prominent Clinton supporter, Bob Mulholland, has denounced the rule change as foolish, asking rhetorically, “Three months before the midterms, and this is what Bernie Sanders and [DNC chair] Tom Perez have us discussing?”
