Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Cedric Richmond is urging the Democratic National Convention to abandon a proposed rule that would prevent Democratic “superdelegates” — including members of Congress — from voting for presidential nominees on the first ballot at the convention.
Richmond, D-La., asked DNC Chairman Tom Perez to ditch the rule, which is aimed at addressing complaints from many Democrats that superdelegates helped Hillary Clinton defeat Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., at the 2016 convention. The superdelegates at that convention made up around 15 percent of the total number of delegates, according to CNN.
The rule would prevent superdelegates — delegates that are not pledged to vote for a particular candidate — from voting for a presidential nominee on the first ballot unless a candidate already has a majority of the whole convention’s votes from pledged delegates alone.
“There should be enough room in the process to include the perspective of local party activists and officials, and Members of Congress. One group should not be harmed at the expense of the other,” Richmond wrote in the letter, which CNN published. “Passage of the reforms in their current form would disenfranchise elected officials for no substantive reason and would create unnecessary competition between those elected and their constituents.”
Under the proposed rule, lawmakers would have to either give up their ability to vote on the first ballot of a contested convention, or give up their superdelegate status to run as a pledged delegate. Richmond indicated that could happen, and cause “friction” with local officials who are often the pledged delegate.
“[T]he thought that a Member of Congress would have to compete with their constituents in an election to secure a first ballot vote on the Party’s nominee creates unnecessary friction between those elected and the people they are elected to serve,” he wrote. “It is easy to see that such competition would have unintended consequences and foster the perception of an uneven playing field.”
In a public conference call with members of the “Unity Reform Commission,” a group that was formed after the 2016 election to recommend changes to the nomination process, Perez said he found the proposal “the most democratic and equitable option,” according to the Washington Post.
“No candidate will be able to build an accumulated lead, whether perceived or real, before a vote has been cast,” he said.
