INQUISITR.COM / News & Politics

Superdelegates May Steal Bernie Sanders’ Presidential Hopes, Your Vote May Not Count For Much

By Val Powell
Published on: 12:58 PST, Feb 16, 2016

Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s superdelegates are showing their continued support for the former Secretary of State despite a lopsided loss in the last New Hampshire primaries.

Clinton, 68, who won by a very slim margin in Iowa but suffered a significant loss in New Hampshire, is still getting much-needed help and support from other Democratic politicians.

Vermont Senator and Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders might have lost by only a thread in the Iowa caucus and won by landslide in New Hampshire, but a new report states that he still trails Clinton by more than 350 delegates.

These superdelegates are composed of state governors, members of Congress, leaders of the Democratic Party in the state, and even former presidents. Their main difference from other delegates is that they are not bound by voting results.

Sanders, 74, may be winning the votes, and the percentage by which he won would automatically earn him a number of delegates, but if all the superdelegates vote for Clinton, then he could still lose the nomination.

As a result, Sanders supporters are calling for some of these superdelegates to rethink their stance and support the candidate that the people want based on the polls and primaries.

Social news and content sharing website Reddit already has several campaigns created by Sanders supporters to lobby superdelegates to the Senator’s side.

There are also two initiatives that are currently underway to convince superdelegates to reflect the popular vote of citizens and not just stick to a pre-made choice.

One initiative called MoveOn.org stated that superdelegates who support Clinton should wait for the final voting results before coming up with a decision for their nominee. The campaign will begin this week and will decide which superdelegates to lobby first.

People who support the Vermont senator are claiming that, because of the superdelegates’ premeditated choice of which candidate to vote for, the Democratic nomination race will end up being fixed.

The petition reached 112,107 signatures as of Sunday with a target of 125,000 signatures.

Meanwhile, the second initiative would compel the superdelegates to announce publicly that “in an event of a close race,” they will “align themselves with regular voters – not party elites.”

The second campaign, which has a target of 175,000 signatures, already has 171,010.

Sanders has also gained an unlikely ally the New Hampshire GOP. The group launched an online petition calling for Democratic superdelegates to “listen to their constituents.”

However, it seems some superdelegates, as well as analysts, are not concerned about the issue at the moment.

Ana Cuprill, who is chair of the Wyoming Democratic Party and has pledged to support Hillary Clinton, said that Sanders’ supporters have kept in touch with her in recent days.

Cuprill emphasized that there is a misconception among Sanders supporters that the superdelegates’ support is an endorsement from the Democratic Party itself.

“I just don’t really see that as an issue,” Cuprill added, saying that the real goal of the petitions is to point to the Democratic National Committee and claim that the “party is broken.”

Bill Hyers, who worked as a strategist for former governor Martin O’Malley, said that the petitions would not make any difference.

Sanders also shared his thoughts on Sunday about the superdelegates issue, although he remained confident that as soon as Democratic delegates see him as the person who can beat the Republican presidential nominee and push the country forward, he will soon get more superdelegates to pledge for him.

[Images by Joe Raedle and Ethan Miller, Getty Images]

Share this article: Superdelegates May Steal Bernie Sanders’ Presidential Hopes, Your Vote May Not Count For Much
hillary clinton bernie sanders
More from Inquisitr