Сверхделегаты на партийных съездах США

Unpledged delegate to a presidential nominating convention

In American politics, a superdelegate is a delegate to a presidential nominating convention who is seated automatically. In Democratic National Conventions, superdelegates—described in formal party rules as the party leaders and elected official (PLEO) category—make up slightly under 15% of all convention delegates. Before 2018, Democratic superdelegates were free to support any candidate for the presidential nomination in all rounds of balloting. (This contrasts with pledged delegates, who were selected based on the party presidential primaries and caucuses in each U. S. state, in which voters choose among candidates for the party's presidential nomination.) In 2018, the Democratic National Committee reduced the influence of superdelegates by barring them from voting on the first ballot at the Democratic National Convention, allowing them to vote only in a contested convention. In Republican National Conventions, each Republican Party state chairman and two district level committee members from each state are automatically seated as delegates, but they are mostly obliged to vote for their state's popular vote winner under the rules of the party branch to which they belong. According to the Pew Research Center, superdelegates are "the embodiment of the institutional Democratic Party – everyone from former presidents, congressional leaders and big money fundraisers to mayors, labor leaders and longtime local party functionaries." Elected members of the Democratic National Committee. Not all superdelegates attend the convention. For example, during his time in Congress, Democratic U. S. Representative Jim Matheson skipped every convention. Former Vice President Al Gore skipped the 2016 Convention. Most Democratic members of Congress skipped the 2020 Convention, choosing not to physically attend in light of the COVID 19 pandemic.

Under party rules, automatic delegates shall "legally reside in their respective state and shall be recognized as part of their state's delegation" (Rule 9. E).

Additionally, under party rules, automatic delegates are automatically disqualified if they have "publicly expressed support for the election of, or has endorsed, a presidential candidate of another political party" (Rule 9. E) and no delegate "shall participate or vote in the nominating process for a Democratic presidential candidate who also participates in the nominating processes of any other party for the corresponding elections" (Rule 2. E). Lieberman's status had, however, previously been questioned because, although he was a registered Democratic voter and caucused with the Democrats, he won re election as the candidate of the Connecticut for Lieberman Party and was listed as an "Independent Democrat" on the ballot. Lieberman did not attend the Democratic Convention; he was instead a speaker at the Republican Convention.

The remaining 85% of delegates are pledged to a candidate and chosen in primaries and caucuses. Unlike the Republican primary process (in which many states have a "winner take all" process, awarding all or most votes to the candidate who wins a plurality of the vote), Democrats follow a proportionality rule. All candidates who received at least 15% of the vote are awarded delegates in proportion to their share of the vote. Most pledged delegates are allotted based on candidates' proportions of the vote at the district level (these generally correspond to congressional districts, but in some states correspond to state senate districts or specially designated "delegate districts"). Additional delegates (the "at large" delegates) are awarded to candidates based on statewide results. pledged delegates generally must support the candidate to whom they are pledged. Pledged delegates who are allocated at the district level to a candidate who subsequently drops out of the race become "free agents": they often support the candidate whom the dropped out candidate endorses, but are not obligated to do so.

In the aftermath of the chaotic 1968 Democratic National Convention, the Democratic Party sought to shift the balance of power in the selection of the party's presidential candidate to primary elections and caucuses, mandating that all delegates be chosen via mechanisms open to all party members; these rules were implemented following the recommendations of the McGovern Fraser Commission. This increased grassroots control of Democratic conventions. However, after Democratic George McGovern lost in a landslide to Richard Nixon in 1972, followed by Carter's defeat by Ronald Reagan in 1980,

In 1988, this process was simplified. Democrats in Congress were now allowed to select up to 80% of their members. All Democratic National Committee members and all Democratic governors were given superdelegate status. This year also saw the addition of the distinguished party leader category (although former DNC chairs were not added to this category until 1996, and former House and Senate minority leaders were not added until 2000). In 1992 was the addition of a category of unpledged "add ons", a fixed number of spots allocated to the states, intended for other party leaders and elected officials not already covered by the previous categories. Finally, beginning in 1996, all Democratic members of Congress were given superdelegate status. The superdelegates have not always prevailed, however. Howard Dean took an early lead in delegate counts before the first primaries in the 2004 Democratic presidential primaries, but was later defeated by John Kerry, who won a succession of primaries and caucuses and, ultimately, the nomination. In 1988, a study found that delegates selected through the primary and caucus process were not substantively different from superdelegates in terms of issue viewpoints. However, superdelegates are more likely to prefer candidates with Washington experience than outsider candidates.

At the 2008 Democratic National Convention, the superdelegates made up approximately one fifth of the total number of delegates. The closeness of the race between the leading contenders, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, led to speculation that the superdelegates would play a decisive role in selecting the nominee, a prospect that caused unease among some Democratic Party leaders. Obama led in pledged delegates at the end of voting in the state contests while not winning enough to secure the nomination without the superdelegates. In May 2008, however, Obama took the lead in superdelegate endorsements for the first time; Clinton dropped out four days after Obama clinched the nomination. Pledged delegates from state caucuses and primaries eventually numbered 3,573, casting 3,566 votes, resulting in a total number of delegate votes of 4,419. A candidate needed a majority of that total, or 2,209, to win the nomination. Superdelegates accounted for 19.6% of convention delegates, while delegates chosen in the Democratic caucuses and primaries accounted for approximately four fifths (80.4%) of the Democratic convention delegates. At the convention, Obama won 3,188.5 delegate votes and Clinton won 1,010.5 with 1 abstention and 218 delegates not voting.

In 2016, a campaign for superdelegates was a feature of the campaign between former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and U. S. Senator Bernie Sanders for the Democratic nomination; Sanders' campaigns and his supporters initially criticized the role of superdelegates, the majority of whom favored Clinton. Several mainstream media outlets included superdelegates in the candidate delegate totals during the primary elections although superdelegates do not vote until the convention and may change their minds on whom they are planning to vote for anytime before the convention. The DNC asked media outlets to not include superdelegate pledges in delegate totals, but many outlets, including the Associated Press, NBC, CBS, and Politico, continued to report total pledged delegates, lumping together superdelegates and pledged delegates. Sanders supporters objected to this practice, argued that it inflated Clinton's lead and discouraged Sanders supporters. Sanders initially said that the candidate with the majority of pledged delegates should be the nominee; in May 2016, after falling behind in the elected delegate count, he shifted, pushed for a contested convention and arguing that, "The responsibility that superdelegates have is to decide what is best for this country and what is best for the Democratic Party." Ultimately, Clinton won the nomination without relying on the votes of superdelegates; she led Sanders by a substantial number of elected delegates (from primary and caucus votes), as well by a substantial margin in the popular vote. She became the presumptive nominee in early June 2016, after the California primary; at the time, Clinton had 1812 pledged delegates and 572 superdelegates, and Sanders had 1520 pledged and 46 superdelegates. Sanders continued to campaign after the last Democratic primary, unsuccessfully seeking to persuade superdelegates to switch their allegiance to him; ultimately, he conceded the race and endorsed Clinton on July 12, 2016. Under the reform package, a 21 member unity commission, chaired by Clinton supporter Jennifer O'Malley Dillon and vice chaired by Sanders supporter Larry Cohen, was appointed after the 2016 general election. The commission's recommendations would be voted on at the next Democratic National Committee meeting, well before the beginning of the 2020 Democratic primaries. By May 2017, the DNC Unity Reform Commission had begun to meet to begin drafting reforms, including superdelegate reform as well as primary calendar and caucus reform. The commission met in the summer and fall of 2017. Different proposals on superdelegates were considered by the party. One proposal was to bind all or some superdelegates to the results of state primaries and caucuses. were delivered to the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee. Perez and Deputy DNC Chair Keith Ellison co authored an op ed for CNN, announcing that the party would make a "significant" cut in the number of superdelegates who vote to decide on the presidential nominee.

Ultimately, the DNC decided to prevent superdelegates from voting on the first ballot, instead of reducing their numbers. On August 25, 2018, the DNC approved a plan to reduce the influence of superdelegates by barring them from voting on the first ballot at the Democratic National Convention, allowing them to vote only in a contested convention (i. e., if a Democratic National Convention did not choose the nominee on the first ballot, because no candidate received an absolute majority (more than 50%) of the pledged delegates elected from the outcome of primaries and caucuses). This does not preclude superdelegates from publicly endorsing a candidate of their choosing before the convention.

The first Democratic presidential primaries cycle under the new 2016–2018 superdelegate reform measures took place in 2020.

The votes of superdelegates have never actually determined the Democratic nominee, although in 1984 they may have helped Walter Mondale win on the first ballot at the convention.

Critics have assailed superdelegates' role in Democratic National Conventions both before and after the 2017 reforms. Susan Estrich argued in 2008 that superdelegates have more power than other delegates because of their greater freedom to vote as they wish beginning with the first ballot. (Superdelegates' ability to vote on the first ballot was eliminated after the 2017 reform.) U. S. Senator Tim Kaine, Hillary Clinton's former running mate, said in 2017 that he agreed with Bernie Sanders that superdelegates should be eliminated from the process: "I have long believed there should be no superdelegates. These positions are given undue influence in the popular nominating contest and make the process less democratic." Prominent Democratic strategists Bob Shrum and Bill Carrick have also opposed superdelegates, and called for them to be dropped from the nominating process. Of the superdelegates at the 2016 Convention, 58% were male and 62% were non Hispanic white (20% were black and 11% were Hispanic). The average age was about 60.

Author Jonathan Rauch and political scientist Ray La Raja argued in 2019 that the U. S. has given too much power to primary voters, and that this inflicts harms to democracy. They argue that "the role of superdelegates in the Democratic nomination process could be strengthened instead of weakened" and that this form of early vetting was positive, suggesting that this formal form of the "invisible primary" can be a positive force to counter balance populism "by restoring the Madisonian pillars of pluralism, checks on power, and deliberative institutions." In February 2016, U. S. Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, chair of the Democratic National Committee, defended the role of superdelegates in an interview with Jake Tapper, arguing that unpledged delegates ensure "that party leaders and elected officials don't have to be in a position where they are running against grass roots activists" and minimizes competition between the two groups.

In the Republican Party, as in the Democratic Party, members of the party's national committee automatically become delegates. There are three Republican National Committee delegates (the national committeeman, national committeewoman, and state party chair) for each state. At the 2012 Republican National Convention, convention rules were amended to obligate unpledged RNC members (the "superdelegates") to vote according to the result of primary elections held in their states if the state holds a primary. Pledged delegates selected by Republican primaries are assigned either on a proportional or a "winner take all" basis. In the 2008 Republican National Convention, 123 RNC delegates among the 2,380 total delegates were not pledged to any candidate. In the 2016 Republican National Convention, 168 delegates among the 2,472 total delegates were "super" (unbound).