Super Delegates

Bernie Sanders has won yet another primary, further chipping away at the inevitability of Hillary.  Even so, Hillary still dominates the delegate count.  She has 2,240 to Bernie's 1,473.  She just needs 142 more delegates to clinch the nomination.  That is just 14% of the remaining delegates.  By contrast, Bernie needs 909, or 87% of the remainder.  Bernie may be on an upswing but that is not going to happen.  That looks pretty hopeless.

Let's look at it a little differently.  What if the super delegates switched?  If Bernie had 524 super delegates and Hillary had only 40.  Suddenly, Bernie would be 200 delegates in the lead with 1957 to Hillary's 1756.  He would only need 40% of the remaining delegates while Hillary would need 60%.  Isn't that interesting?

 

Hillary has the support of 524 super delegates while Bernie has only 40.  These delegates are not allocated based on how their state voted.  Looking at the delegate count without super delegates, Hillary has won 54% vs. Bernie's 46%.  But Hillary has the support of 93% of the super delegates.  That hardly sounds democratic.  If the super delegates were dumped into the pool, Hillary would still have the majority of them and be the likely nominee.  As it is, the gap between Hilary and Bernie is close enough that a switch of the super delegates could change the nominee.  Because that is the case, Bernie has an excellent argument for a contested convention.