Over the past week, Clinton has picked up the endorsements of 87 more party insiders known as superdelegates, according to a new Associated Press survey.
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That is “unacceptable, and should not be happening”, Sanders said in response to a woman who told him about her undocumented husband, who was barred from the USA for 10 years, after she tried unsuccessfully to bring him out of the shadows. Sanders, meanwhile, has risen 11, from 8 to 19.
Clinton’s campaign hopes strong minority support will give her a “firewall” in the Democratic race, particularly in SC and a swath of Southern states that will vote in early March.
Unlike Iowa, which has had a caucus format for four decades, Nevada only became a caucus state when it was moved up in the primary season in 2008.
Next up is South Carolina Congressman Jim Clyburn, one of the top African-American leaders on Capitol Hill and the highest ranking elected Democrat in the state, who will endorse Clinton on Friday, according to a source close to the congressman.
The basic premise behind the controversial superdelegate issue is that the party assigns them to whomever they choose. “I don’t want to be lectured on my support for civil rights”. It’s crucial in a state like Nevada, where she’s neck-and-neck with Sanders ahead of Saturday’s caucuses.
Likely Democratic primary voters favor Clinton over Sanders by 28 points (56-28 per cent), the poll said. Sanders seems to have siphoned some of Clinton’s popularity within the community, but Clinton has enjoyed heavy support from it in the past.
The disparity is sparking a backlash among some Sanders supporters, who complain that the Democratic nominating process is decidedly undemocratic, rigged in favor of Clinton. Currently, that petition has more than 161,000 signatures.
MoveOn.org, which has endorsed Sanders, has started an online petition calling on the superdelegates to back the candidate who gets the most votes in primaries. NNU members do grass-roots work for Sanders – something that Priorities, a superPAC without members, can not provide for Clinton.
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Clyburn’s announcement comes a week after the Congressional Black Caucus Political Action Committee made its endorsement of Clinton at Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington, D.C. And that’s not lost on superdelegates. Going too sharply against voters’ wishes isn’t going to do them any good in that sense.
