Last updated on September 25th, 2023 at 02:08 pm

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Democrats finally listened to more than a decade worth of criticism and reduced the influence of superdelegates, but there will also be no more Independent candidates running for the presidential nomination.

Bloomberg reported on a sweeping set of changes to the Democratic Party’s presidential nominating process:

The 700 or so superdelegates — party leaders including Democratic National Committee members, members of Congress, and former Democratic presidents — will no longer be able to vote in the first round of balloting at the party’s 2020 convention unless there’s already a clear winner based on the results of the party’s primaries and caucus. If the nominating process moves past a first round, something that hasn’t happened since 1952, superdelegates would be able to vote.

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The DNC also voted Saturday to add rules aimed at making primaries more accessible to any Democrat who wants to participate, including permitting same-day party switching to the Democratic Party. It’s a measure aimed at appealing to Sanders supporters and others who don’t typically consider themselves Democrats. In addition, DNC members voted to require candidates for the 2020 presidential nomination to agree that they’re members of the party and that they’ll serve as Democrats if elected

There have been calls to get rid of the superdelegates since 2008

Even though he won the Democratic nomination, and then the White House twice, Barack Obama lobbied hard for the DNC to get rid of the superdelegates. After Obama won the 2008 nomination, a commission that he backed recommended that power is removed from the superdelegates, but the DNC did not listen to the commission’s recommendations.

This change has been a decade in the making as everyone, but the superdelegates themselves viewed their influence as outsized.

Every Democratic presidential candidate must be a Democrat

There will be no more Independents running for the Democratic nomination. Consider this the Bernie Sanders rule. If a candidate wants to be the Democratic nominee, they must be a Democrat. This is a change that rank and file Democrats have been demanding since the 2016 primary because it is only reasonable for members of the Democratic Party to want their candidates to members of the party. The same day party switching rule doesn’t get rid of closed primaries but emphasizes allowing voters who want to switch over to vote for Democratic candidates.

These rule changes are good, and should make for a more open primary process that emphasizes the will of voters over superdelegates in 2020.

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Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association