Why does the democratic party use superdelegates

Most delegates represent a congressional district. During primaries and caucuses, presidential candidates campaign to get the votes from members of their party and, in some primaries, independents. Some Republican delegates are awarded proportionally, while some states use a winner-take-all system during the primaries.

The Democratic party uses a fairly complex formula if you ask us to determine the allocation of delegates to candidates. Now, onto superdelegates. They are also called unpledged or automatic delegates. Use PLEO , taken from the initial letters of party leaders and elected officials. The term superdelegate dates back to the early s.

They have long caused friction in the Democratic party, as they can support a candidate even if the public did not and thus many feel have undue power. They are at the center of the debate over the degree of influence primary voters have compared to party insiders in choosing the candidate.

Due to controversies over superdelegates , the Democratic party reformed its rules about superdelegates for the election. That's where things often get messy. Although Clinton did win a majority of pledged delegates, Sanders and his supporters thought her early endorsements from so many superdelegates might have swayed primary voters [source: Conway ].

In the wake of these conflicts, Sanders and his activists sought several rule changes to the nominating process, which were mostly rejected by the DNC.

However, they did get one big change for the election — superdelegates were no longer allowed to cast their votes during the first ballot at the national convention, unless the outcome was already certain [source: to Win ].

So why does the Democratic Party have superdelegates? And does the Republican Party have anything equivalent? During the s, the primary system expanded dramatically, giving local voters much more say in who was nominated for president. But after blowout losses in the general elections of and , Democratic Party leaders felt they should take back some control as to who won the nomination.

The DNC decided to add superdelegates to the nomination process, who were not beholden to voting for whoever won the primary vote but could vote for whoever they thought had the best shot of winning. The Republican Party does have superdelegates as well, but they must vote for the candidate who won the primary in their state, so they are less controversial.

Superdelegates in the Republican Party make up 7 percent of its delegates, versus 16 percent of the Democratic Party's delegates [sources: PBS , Heersink ]. Superdelegates in the Democratic Party had an almost immediate effect after their creation in At the convention — thanks to superdelegate votes — Vice President Walter Mondale won the nomination over rival Sen.

Gary Hart, who had won more states than Mondale although Mondale won more of the popular vote. In the end though, Mondale lost the general election in a landslide to Ronald Reagan, winning just one state and D. So, it may seem that having superdelegates doesn't make much of a difference to a party's chances of winning the general election. But perhaps it does. You don't want bleed-over from the Green Party, the independents and others in deciding who your nominee will be," explained Willie Brown, former mayor of San Francisco and longtime Democrat in , to CNN.

Brown cited the ability of undeclared or non-Democrat voters in some states to cast a vote in Democratic primaries or caucuses. How the President Is Elected. Introduction Before Election Day. Election Day. Kathy Gill. Politics Expert. Kathy Gill is a former instructor at the University of Washington, a former lobbyist, and spent 20 years working public affairs executive in the natural resources industry.

Updated September 19, Featured Video. View Article Sources. Cite this Article Format. Gill, Kathy. How Superdelegates Work. Importance of the US Presidential Primaries.

What Is Political Participation? Definition and Examples. Your Privacy Rights. To change or withdraw your consent choices for ThoughtCo. At any time, you can update your settings through the "EU Privacy" link at the bottom of any page. Mondale would win only one state plus D. In addition to a certain number of delegates based on its size, each state has three delegates from the Republican National Committee RNC to represent it at the national convention.

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