Bernie Sanders says that if he is the eventual nominee, he will work to reduce the role superdelegates play in the nominating process for the Democratic Party.
Speaking to NBC’s Chuck Todd during a town hall event Monday night on MSNBC, Sanders questioned the role superdelegates can play in a democracy calling for superdelegates to support him if he wins the state. (RELATED: CNN’s Tapper Challenges DNC Chair To Explain ‘Rigged’ Superdelegate System [VIDEO])
Sanders was asked by an audience member about how “superdelegates make it possible for a Democratic candidate to win the nomination without winning a majority of votes.” The questioner noted that superdelagates have “been a large contributor to ideas about Secretary Clinton’s inevitability. I feel like superdelegates do the opposite of empowering Democratic voters like myself. So my question is, what can Democrats like me do to fix this process?”
Sanders replied, “I fully concede to what everybody understands. Secretary Clinton is the candidate of the establishment, all right? So she has all of the governors, almost all of the mayors and all the Congressmen, all of the senators, it is true. And many of them are superdelegates.”
“But here’s what is really weird. We won New Hampshire — by over 20 points. We had to take on the governor and we had to take on a United States senator. And yet, it was likely that superdelegates in that state will actually vote, or intending to vote for Secretary Clinton, despite the fact that the people in that state have spoken very strongly for me,” Sanders lamented. (RELATED: After Crushing Defeat, DNC Quirk Still Gives Hillary More New Hampshire Delegates Than Sanders)
“And we’re seeing that around the country. So to answer your question, I think what people should be saying to superdelegates, ‘Look, if Bernie Sanders wins this state with a big vote, why don’t you vote with the people of your state,’ because your point is a good point,” Sanders said.
“What does democracy mean? Now, I know, legally, they have the right to do that. I’m arguing that. But if we– one of the goals of my campaign, when you talk about a political revolution, is to bring new people into the political process, young people, working class people who have, in a significant way, given up. And it is hard to do that– if they come out and vote, we win in the state, and then you got superdelegates voting for Secretary Clinton, despite the fact she may have lost the state by a big vote. This is an issue we have got to focus on,” Sanders said.
Todd followed up with Sanders asking if he becomes the nominee, “Will you scrap superdelegates?”
Saying that “scrap” was too strong of a word, but agreed with Todd’s reassessment that he would “significantly reduce” the power of superdelegates saying, “Yeah. Look, what I am trying to do in this campaign is to revitalize American democracy.”
Sanders is currently fighting an uphill battle against Super delegates. For example, despite defeating Clinton in Michigan, Sanders still left the state with fewer delegates because Clinton received 10 of the 17 superdelegates so far. The other seven delegates have yet to pledge their support to a candidate.