Superdelegate


In American politics, a superdelegate is a delegate to a presidential nominating convention who is seated automatically.
In Democratic National Conventions, superdelegates—described in formal party rules as the party leaders and elected official category—make up slightly under 15% of all convention delegates. Before 2018, Democratic superdelegates were free to support any candidate for the presidential nomination in all rounds of balloting. In 2018, the Democratic National Committee reduced the influence of superdelegates by barring them from voting on the first ballot at the Democratic National Convention, allowing them to vote only in a contested convention. In 2024, the Democratic National Committee voted to adopt new rules that allowed superdelegates to vote during the signature collection and on the first ballot of a virtual roll call for the presidential nomination, even without a candidate securing a majority of the convention's delegates using only pledged delegates, which were earned by the candidate during the primary process.
In Republican National Conventions, three Republican Party leaders of each state, territory, and Washington D.C. are automatically seated as delegates, but they are pledged to vote according to the results of their party branch's presidential primaries at least on the first ballot.

In Democratic National Conventions

Description of superdelegates

Of all the delegates to the Democratic National Convention, slightly under 15% are superdelegates. According to the Pew Research Center, superdelegates are "the embodiment of the institutional Democratic Party – everyone from former presidents, congressional leaders and big-money fundraisers to mayors, labor leaders and longtime local party functionaries." Democratic superdelegates are formally described as automatic party leader and elected official delegates; each falls into one or more of the following categories based on other positions they hold:
  1. Elected members of the Democratic National Committee. Elected DNC members include "the chairs and vice chairs of each state and territorial Democratic Party; 212 national committeemen and committeewomen elected to represent their states; top officials of the DNC itself and several of its auxiliary groups ; and 75 at-large members who are nominated by the party chairman and chosen by the full DNC." Most at-large DNC members "are local party leaders, officeholders and donors or representatives of important Democratic constituencies, such as organized labor." At the 2016 Democratic National Convention, there were 437 DNC members who were superdelegates.
  2. Democratic governors. There were 21 Democratic governors who were superdelegates at the 2016 Democratic National Convention.
  3. Democratic members of Congress. There were 191 U.S. representatives and 47 U.S. senators who were superdelegates at the 2016 Democratic National Convention.
  4. Any sitting Democratic president or vice president, if applicable.
  5. Distinguished party leaders: consisting of all former Democratic presidents, vice presidents, congressional leaders. There were 20 of these who were superdelegates at the 2016 Democratic National Convention.
Because the number of superdelegates depends on the number of Democratic members of Congress and Democratic governors, the exact number of superdelegates may change during the primary season due to officials' deaths, resignations, or special elections.
Not all superdelegates attend the convention. For example, during his time in Congress, Democratic U.S. representative Jim Matheson skipped every convention. Former vice president Al Gore skipped the 2016 convention.

State residency

Under party rules, automatic delegates shall "legally reside in their respective state and... shall be recognized as part of their state's delegation". For example, in the 2008 convention, former Maine governor Kenneth M. Curtis was a superdelegate, but because he had moved to Florida in 2006, he was counted as part of the Florida delegation, not the Maine delegation.

Loss of superdelegate status

Additionally, under party rules, automatic delegates are automatically disqualified if they have "publicly expressed support for the election of, or has endorsed, a presidential candidate of another political party" and no delegate "shall participate or vote in the nominating process for a Democratic presidential candidate who also participates in the nominating processes of any other party for the corresponding elections". Thus, a person who would otherwise qualify as a superdelegate loses his or her superdelegate status by endorsing another party's presidential candidate. In 2008, Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut endorsed Republican John McCain, which, according to the chairwoman of the Connecticut Democratic Party, resulted in his disqualification as a superdelegate. Lieberman's status had, however, previously been questioned because, although he was a registered Democratic voter and caucused with the Democrats, he won re-election as the candidate of the Connecticut for Lieberman Party and was listed as an "Independent Democrat" on the ballot. Lieberman did not attend the Democratic Convention; he was instead a speaker at the Republican Convention.

Comparison with pledged delegates

The remaining 85% of delegates are pledged to a candidate and chosen in primaries and caucuses. Unlike the Republican primary process, Democrats follow a proportionality rule. All candidates who received at least 15% of the vote are awarded delegates in proportion to their share of the vote. Most pledged delegates are allotted based on candidates' proportions of the vote at the district level. Additional delegates are awarded to candidates based on statewide results. Finally, there are pledged "party leader and elected official" delegates. These are large city mayors, state legislative leaders, and county party officials who are pledged to a certain candidate; like the statewide at-large delegates, pledged PLEO delegates are allocated proportionally to presidential candidates based on the statewide primary or caucus vote. The district, at-large, and PLEO delegates collectively constitute a state or territory's pledged delegation.
Unlike superdelegates, who may support a candidate of their choice, pledged delegates generally must support the candidate to whom they are pledged. Since 1982, the party rules have stated that: "Delegates elected to the national convention pledged to a presidential candidate shall in all good conscience reflect the sentiments of those who elected them."
If a candidate who has earned pledged delegates drops out before the national convention, then that candidate's delegates who were elected at the district level are released from their obligation to the dropped-out candidate. Pledged delegates who are allocated at the district level to a candidate who subsequently drops out of the race become "free agents": they often support the candidate whom the dropped-out candidate endorses, but are not obligated to do so. By contrast, statewide pledged delegates are usually proportionally reallocated to candidates still in the race at the time when the states formally elect their delegates: this typically takes place at a statewide convention held after the primary or caucus, but before the national convention in mid-summer.
By contrast, many superdelegates choose to announce endorsements, but they are not bound to those preferences, and may support any candidate they wish, including a candidate who has dropped out of the presidential race.

History

Origins

In the aftermath of the chaotic 1968 Democratic National Convention, the Democratic Party sought to shift the balance of power in the selection of the party's presidential candidate to primary elections and caucuses, mandating that all delegates be chosen via mechanisms open to all party members; these rules were implemented following the recommendations of the McGovern-Fraser Commission. This increased grassroots control of Democratic conventions. However, after Democratic nominee George McGovern lost in a landslide to Richard Nixon in 1972, and after a decisive fight over the rules at the 1980 convention between supporters of Jimmy Carter and supporters of Edward M. Kennedy, followed by Carter's defeat by Ronald Reagan in 1980, the party changed its nominating rules again.
A commission headed by North Carolina governor Jim Hunt issued a report in 1982, on a 47-6 vote, to set aside 550 unpledged delegate seats held by party officials, to vote alongside the 3,300 Democratic pledged votes. This partial reversal of the trend toward grassroots control was supported by mainstream party leaders in Congress, as well as organized labor. It increases the power of the institutional party "regulars" against insurgent "outsider" maverick candidates. Their initial proposal to have superdelegates represent 30% of all delegates to the national convention was defeated in favor of a compromise proposal by Geraldine A. Ferraro, in which superdelegates made up about 14% of delegates. The proportion of superdelegates eventually expanded over time, reaching about 20% at the 2008 convention.

1984 and 1988

In 1984, only state party chairs and vice chairs were guaranteed superdelegate status. The remaining spots were divided two ways. Democratic members of Congress were allowed to select up to 60% of their members to fill some of these spots. The remaining positions were left to the state parties to fill with priority given to governors and big-city mayors, led by Democrats and based on population. In the 1984 election, the major contenders for the presidential nomination were Gary Hart, Jesse Jackson, and Walter Mondale. Entering the final handful of primaries on June 5, Mondale was leading Hart in the delegate count, with Jackson far behind. The battle for delegates became more dramatic that night when Hart won three primaries, including the big prize of California in a cliffhanger. The Mondale campaign said, and some news reports agreed, that Mondale secured the needed 1,967 delegates to clinch the nomination that night in spite of losing California. But the Associated Press concluded he was "barely short of the magic majority." Mondale wanted to make it indisputable that he had enough delegate votes, and his campaign set a deadline of one minute before noon; he made 50 calls in three hours to nail down an additional 40 superdelegates and declared at a press conference that he had 2,008 delegate votes. At the convention in July, Mondale won on the first ballot.
In 1988, this process was simplified. Democrats in Congress were now allowed to select up to 80% of their members. All Democratic National Committee members and all Democratic governors were given superdelegate status. This year also saw the addition of the distinguished party leader category. In 1992 was the addition of a category of unpledged "add-ons", a fixed number of spots allocated to the states, intended for other party leaders and elected officials not already covered by the previous categories. Finally, beginning in 1996, all Democratic members of Congress were given superdelegate status. The superdelegates have not always prevailed, however. Howard Dean took an early lead in delegate counts before the first primaries in the 2004 Democratic presidential primaries, but was later defeated by John Kerry, who won a succession of primaries and caucuses and, ultimately, the nomination. In 1988, a study found that delegates selected through the primary and caucus process were not substantively different from superdelegates in terms of issue viewpoints. However, superdelegates are more likely to prefer candidates with Washington experience than outsider candidates.