Maine has become the first state in the union to officially abolish superdelegates as an amendment to eliminate their influence just passed with overwhelming support at the statewide Democratic Party convention amidst cheers of “Bernie! Bernie!” from the crowd.
The amendment will unfortunately be unbinding for the current election cycle, but it will take effect in 2020 and will continue to influence future elections. As for this year, the state’s superdelegates will be urged to follow the new amendment but will not be required to do so.
Under the new rules, the superdelegates for the state will be allocated according to the popular vote instead of being free to choose their own candidate. In this election, that means that Sanders would pick up three of the five superdelegates, and Clinton would pick up two of them. In the current state of affairs, three superdelegates support Clinton, one supports Sanders, and one is uncommitted.
Rep. Diane Russell (D-Portland) introduced the amendment and had this to say:
“I never expected this kind of response from the amendment. I’m suddenly seen as the hero of the convention.”
The amendment seemed to be passed in large part thanks to millennials, who felt they were being talked down to by the establishment figures at the convention who were speaking out against it. Rep. Russell added:
“Their arguments were basically ‘respect your elders’ and ‘remember McGovern,’ but if the party wants to engage and bring in younger people, they can’t turn around and tell them to wait their turn. A lot of the millennials feel like they’re being talked down to.”
The amendment has additional provisions requiring the Maine Democratic Party to petition the Democtatic National Committee to move to get rid of superdelegates on a national level. Hopefully this will prove to be the first step in moving toward the party choosing the nominee based solely on popular vote and not in part by the party elite.
Watch this video of the amendment passing below:
Featured image is a screengrab from the above YouTube video.
