Chances for a brokered Democratic National Convention next summer are slim but just big enough for candidates to make their case in person to the party insiders who could help decide the nomination if the primary process and large field produce gridlock.
The Democratic National Committee has invited 2020 White House hopefuls to address the body’s summer meeting scheduled from Aug. 22 through Aug. 24 in San Francisco. Officially, it’s a Democratic Party version of a get-to-know-you event. But in a field of more than 25 contenders, some are already eyeing the possibility that nobody will break through and earn enough delegates to win the nomination cleanly.
New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker held sideline meet-and-greets during the winter meeting in Washington, D.C. And the campaign of South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg is taking proactive steps to court Democratic officials, who could play a crucial role in a contested convention.
To be sure, the likelihood of a brokered convention is low. No party has faced one since 1952, when Democrats nominated Illinois Gov. Adlai Stevenson on the third round of balloting. And despite the crowded 2020 field, the largest for either party in modern politics, the primary fight is suspected to narrow to a few candidates and eventually a nominee.
The DNC meeting in San Francisco will be the first time many of the contenders have made personal pleas to members.
Although Allison Stephens, a Nevada committeewoman and secretary of the DNC’s Black Caucus, told the Washington Examiner that she’s a “firm believer that there’s no person, no endorsement, no check, that’s more powerful than a single person going out and voting,” first impressions will matter.
“I think it’s really important to realize people don’t just walk up to the DNC,” said Stephens, who also serves as the Julián Castro’s campaign Nevada chairwoman and an external healthcare and education policy adviser for the former Obama administration housing secretary. “I got elected by the majority of my state in both of our urban areas and across rural Nevada, so that means that obviously people respect me, they value my opinion, they value my input. So it’s no small thing to be able to sway a member of the DNC,” she said.
Jeri Shepherd, a Colorado committeewoman, wrote in an email she wanted to hear the hopefuls talk about what they “hope to accomplish if they were to win.” “If a candidate cannot give you an answer as to their vision for the future, they should be rethinking whether they need to run for POTUS,” she said.
DNC members are appointed to their positions assisting in the governing of the national party via election from their respective state organizations or through their roles within certain affiliated bodies. They were once called “superdelegates,” with an automatic vote at the convention for their favored candidate. But since the 2016 election, they have been recast as “automatic delegates.”
Reforms rolled out after complaints the nominating process last cycle was unfair toward Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders now mean automatic delegates won’t vote during the first ballot at the 2020 Democratic National Convention next July in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, if they will affect the result. But Georgia state Sen. Sheikh Rahman warned they could impact the outcome should proceedings continue to a second round.
“If we have candidates that last for a while, they don’t drop out, there’s always the chance that we might end up deciding who will be the candidate,” Rahman said. “That could happen. In that sense, I’m sure they are going to try to garner our support.”
Superdelegates have occasionally been influential in the nominating contests since the advent of the current primary-based process ahead of the 1972 race. In 1984, party insiders aided former Vice President Walter Mondale to secure the Democratic nomination over Colorado Sen. Gary Hart. A generation later, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton battled for the endorsements of superdelegates attending the 2008 convention, with the Illinois senator eventually clinching the nomination over over his senatorial colleague from New York.
