It’s Super Tuesday and the race to win the Democratic presidential nomination is well on its way.
Five candidates are still actively vying for the nomination, which has political pundits and party strategists pondering how this primary season will end. Will it end as it typically does with a smooth and relatively drama-free nomination process? Or will it end in a contentious brokered convention, the likes of which Americans haven’t seen since 1952?
With a crowded field, there is a small likelihood that a single candidate will earn the majority of the pledged delegates needed to secure the nomination. However, one candidate will walk into the Democratic National Convention with a plurality of the delegates rather than a majority.
Generally speaking, pledged delegates proportionally represent the number of votes each candidate receives in a state primary and caucus races. The candidate with the most pledged delegates is typically the candidate with the most votes.
And the candidate with the most votes should win the nomination, right? Not according to the Democratic National Committee’s nominating rules.
If no candidate earns a clear majority of pledged delegates after the first round of voting, something called a brokered convention occurs. After the first round of voting, delegates and officials begin bartering and negotiating amongst themselves, offering up the vice presidency or other important roles in hopes of reaching a majority during the second round.
And if you thought this process couldn’t get any more complicated, you’d be wrong.
Along with the shady back-room dealings, a second round of voting also introduces 771 superdelegates. Unlike regular delegates, superdelegates are unpledged and free to vote for whomever they like, completely independent from the result of the popular vote.
Superdelegates include Democratic Party elites such as former presidents, vice presidents and DNC chairs. Historically, party elites tend to throw their support behind establishment candidates, arguably disadvantaging anti-establishment contenders.
Much like the electoral college system, the person with the most votes and most support from Democratic voters could still lose the nomination because of this process.
While delegates and superdelegates rarely vote against the will of the people, Democratic Party officials have revealed that 2020 might just be the year they do.
In recent interviews with The New York Times, 93 superdelegates and other party officials expressed “overwhelming opposition” to nominating Senator Bernie Sanders if he won a plurality rather than a majority.
Last month at the Las Vegas Democratic Debate, all but one of the candidates echoed these sentiments. When asked whether or not the person with the most delegates should win the nomination, Vice President Joe Biden replied, “No, let the process work its way out.”
In an appearance on MSNBC, former South Carolina State Representative Anton Gunn said plainly, “The party decides the nominee. The public doesn’t really decide the nominee.”
And if it wasn’t painfully clear enough that the Democratic Party establishment no longer cares about the will of the people, one party member decided to clear things up.
“This election is about saving the American experiment as a republic,” William Owen said in an interview with The New York Times.
Notice Owen’s word choice there, “This election is about saving the American experiment as a republic,” NOT a democracy.
There couldn’t be any more damning evidence of the Democratic Party completely abandoning its core values and beliefs than this.
In the DNC’s most recent party platform, it states, “The Democratic Party was founded on the promise of an expanded democracy. The right to vote is at the heart of our national vision. It is a core principle of the Democratic Party to maximize voter participation for all Americans.”
What good is the right to vote when the party encouraging you to participate is the very party actively admitting that your vote doesn’t count? That it knows better than you and ultimately, “the party decides the nominee?”
According to their very own platform, the Democratic Party is supposed to fight for democracy. It’s supposed to be the party that fights to expand the electorate and elevate the voices of the marginalized and disenfranchised. And above all else, it’s supposed to be the party that respects the will of the people, not the party that subverts it at a brokered convention.
Clearly, the Democratic Party has strayed from the values and principles that made it what it once was. We can only hope that when the time comes to elect the Democratic nominee in July, the Democratic party will remember its promises and respect the will of the people.
