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“What is the role of delegates and superdelegates?” – Serge Ouellette
First, we must not confuse party delegates with electors. The role of delegates is limited to the primaries. That of electors will come this fall, on the occasion of the presidential election.
Delegates are citizens or local figures who vote to nominate the candidate of the party of which they are members at the end of its convention. They thus play a role only during the period when the parties choose their presidential candidate.
So for this election, they’ve finished their work. The Democrats have just concluded their convention; the Republicans held theirs in mid-July.
To understand what a delegate is and what role they play, it is important to remember that political parties elect their presidential candidates indirectly, says Karine Prémont, professor of applied politics at the University of Sherbrooke. They determine the number of delegates allocated to each state.
Take 2024 as an example: Delegates pledged to support the candidate they were assigned by their state’s supporters in the primaries that ran from January to June at this summer’s conventions, explains Christophe Cloutier-Roy, deputy director of the Raoul Dandurand Chair’s Observatory on the United States. They were therefore expected to set aside their personal opinions and represent public opinion at the convention.
“They are generally activists, volunteers, people who have been associated with the party for a long time, to whom we will give a symbolic, honorary function,” summarizes Professor Prémont. They are in a way “intermediaries,” adds the political scientist.
If, at a convention, a candidate does not obtain a majority of votes — 50% plus one — after the first round, “the delegates are released. They can therefore support whoever they want during the following rounds,” adds researcher Cloutier-Roy. The expert in American politics notes, however, that a “negotiated convention” has never happened in the context of a modern election.
And what about superdelegates?
Unlike delegates, who are citizens, superdelegates are “important figures—former elected officials, former senators, governors, etc.—who are not bound by the vote in the primaries,” explains Christophe Cloutier-Roy. They are therefore much fewer in number than delegates. And, in theory, they can support anyone.
Note that superdelegates are only found in the Democratic Party. Republicans only use “traditional” delegates to choose their candidate.
Generally, superdelegates “don’t make a difference,” says Karine Prémont. She does, however, cite the 2016 election process, during which the very existence of superdelegates was criticized by Bernie Sanders supporters. “His supporters said that the superdelegates, being themselves part of the elite, the establishment, were going to vote for Clinton rather than Sanders.”