These Candidate Representatives Play A Huge Role In Who Gets Nominated
If you were closely following the incoming results of the Iowa caucuses Monday night, you likely noticed that, several times, the candidate who had the highest percentage of the popular vote didn't necessarily have the most delegates allotted to them. The electoral system is confusing, and it's easy to pay more attention to the popular vote percentages than to the delegate count. But the number of delegates is actually the most important figure for determining which candidate wins the primary election. That's why it's essential to understand what delegates are, and how they function within the electoral system.
The purpose of the primary is to decide who will be the Democratic and Republican nominees for president. These decisions are made by the number of delegates supporting the candidates at the Democratic and Republican National Conventions in the summer. Delegates are people from each state who attend the conventions to select the presidential nominees for their respective parties. The number of delegates from each state varies depending on the size of each state's population. The situation becomes complicated when we look at how the delegates decide which candidate to support, and how many delegates are ultimately allotted to candidates. The answers vary for both parties and for different states.
Types Of Delegates
One of the most important things to know is that some delegates have to show support at the conventions based on the results of their state's primary elections or caucuses. These are "pledged" delegates. Other delegates do not — the "unpledged" ones, also known as superdelegates. Ballotpedia reports that about 85 percent of Democratic delegates in the 2016 election are pledged. Some of these are Congressional district delegates, who are allocated to candidates based on primary or caucus results within their districts; the pledged delegates for the Democratic Party are allocated based on statewide results.
The remaining 15 percent of Democratic delegates are unpledged "superdelegates." These are elite members of the Democratic party, such as members of the Democratic National Committee, former presidents, and current congresspeople, who can support whomever they wish at the Convention, regardless of primary or caucus results. Overall, there are 4,763 Democratic delegates, and a candidate must win more than half of them (2,382) to earn the nomination. Superdelegates make up 30 percent of the 2,382 delegates needed to win the nomination. This is particularly important in 2016, because in November, 359 of the 712 superdelegates told the Associated Press that they were already committed to Clinton, as opposed to only eight for Sanders.
Rigged. #Superdelegates. #Iowa is 1st Primary but #HillaryClintonalready has 1/5 of delegates she'll need in 2016 dailym.ai/1PXF31g
Rigged. #Superdelegates. #Iowa is 1st Primary but #HillaryClintonalready has 1/5 of delegates she'll need in 2016 dailym.ai/1PXF31g
