Bernie Sanders will have an unusual level of influence over the Democratic Party platform, as he and Hillary Clinton will appoint nearly the same number of members to the committee that will draft it at the convention this summer.
Clinton and Sanders have agreed with Democratic officials that Sanders will appoint five of the 15 members of the platform committee, while Clinton will appoint six. This is supposed to give them influence roughly proportional to their popular vote shares in the Democratic presidential primaries this year, according to a report. DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz will fill the other four slots.
In years past, rules dictated that the DNC chairman picked all 15 of the people who served on the platform committee. But the change was made as a concession to Sanders, who has argued that the party is excluding him in favor of Clinton.
Sanders supporters had even promised a fight on the convention floor if their voices were not heard at the convention. After a large group of the Vermont senator’s backers in Nevada rioted at the state’s Democratic convention last week, Nevada Democratic leaders warned the DNC that this could repeat itself at the convention in Philadelphia.
“We believe that we will have the representation on the platform drafting committee to create a Democratic platform that reflects the views of millions of our supporters who want the party to address the needs of working families in this country and not just Wall Street, the drug companies, the fossil fuel industry and other powerful special interests,” Sanders said in a statement applauding the agreement.
Sanders hopes to shift the party’s platform to include his more progressive views. Although it is nearly mathematically impossible for Sanders to win the party nomination at this point, he has pledged to stay in the primary until the convention in Philadelphia this July.
