According to the most recent totals, Clinton currently has 1,267 pledged delegates to Bernie’s 1,037. The actual race is close and they still have 18 contests remaining — including the delegate rich states of California, New York and Pennsylvania.
What’s disturbing, though, is that in spite of the actual closeness of the contest between them, members of the political establishment, called superdelegates, are going against the will of the voters in their own states to support Clinton over Sanders.
For instance, on Saturday, Sanders won every county in Washington state and won nearly 75% of the vote. It was a drubbing. Will of the people be damned, the superdelegates in Washington all said they are voting for Clinton, including Gov. Jay Inslee, U.S. Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray and U.S. Reps. Jim McDermott, Suzan DelBene, Rick Larsen, Adam Smith, Denny Heck and Derek Kilmer.
This is preposterous. Sanders handily won the state and won every congressional district by a landslide, but the governor, the senators and the congresspeople don’t care. They are firmly against the will of the people in their state.
Not a single superdelegate vote from Washington is going to Sanders.
Not one.
In fact, this is happening all over the country.
In spite of Sanders winning 15 states — including some by an 80-20 margin — over 94% of the 498 superdelegates have said they are backing Clinton anyway. Clinton currently has 469 superdelegate votes to just 29 for Sanders.
In Minnesota, Sanders won 61.6% of the vote, but 13 of the 16 superdelegates there, or 81%, including the governor, the senators, and many DNC members, say they are going for Hillary anyway. They aren’t even slightly persuaded by the will of the people.
In other states, like Colorado, where Sanders won with 59% of the vote, not a single superdelegate is voting for him. The same is true for Nebraska, where he won 57% of the vote but isn’t getting a single superdelegate.
It’s even worse in Idaho. Last week, Sanders won Idaho by a landslide with 78% of the vote. Every single superdelegate is going for Clinton anyway.
These states are anomalies. In every state Sanders won, except for his home state of Vermont, Clinton received almost every superdelegate vote there anyway.
Even there, where Sanders won over 86% of the vote, several of the superdelegates still opted to thwart the will of their state and pledge for Clinton.
Clinton supporters are quick to say, “these are the rules the candidates agreed upon,” and maybe that’s true, but voters are being ripped off. We didn’t decide on these rules and these officials are clearly going against the will of the people in their own states to support the establishment candidate who arranged for their support long before this election began.
Right now, if Sanders had the superdelegate votes that Clinton currently has, he’d be winning this race handily with 1,444 total delegates to Clinton’s 1,272.
Don’t say superdelegates aren’t determining this race. They are, and the practice should be abolished — immediately.
