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Fact check: Did the media call the Democratic primary too early?
June 7, 2016
By Humberto Sanchez
Media outlets are reporting that Hillary Clinton is the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, effectively defeating Sen. Bernie Sanders.[1][2] Most articles cite a tally of delegates, including superdelegates, by the Associated Press (AP), while NBC News and CNN cited their own delegate counts, all of which found that Clinton reached the 2,383 delegates needed to claim the nomination on Monday. Superdelegates—officially known as "unpledged delegates"—are Democratic Party officeholders and elected officials who are free to vote how they wish rather than be bound to a specific candidate in accordance with the results of their state’s primary.[3][4][5]
Sanders, who has been campaigning hard to win the biggest delegate prize of the June 7 primaries—California, where 475 delegates are at stake—disputed the reports that Clinton had clinched the nomination.[6] He stated the following:[7]
| “ | The media is in error when they lump superdelegates with pledged delegates. Pledged delegates are real. … Hillary Clinton will not have the requisite number of pledged delegates to win the Democratic nomination at the end of the nominating process on June 14. Won't happen. She will be dependent on superdelegates.[8] | ” |
Sanders also tweeted:
Pundits and the political press wanna call this race early before every person votes. Let's show them we ain't gonna let it happen. Go vote.
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) June 7, 2016
Did the media call the Democratic presidential primary too soon? Yes. Superdelegates do not vote for a nominee until the Democratic National Convention, which begins July 25. Since superdelegates are free to vote however they want, some could change their minds between the time they were surveyed in June and the convention. And because superdelegates are not identified by the AP, NBC News, or CNN, they could change their minds and not face any individual public repercussions.[9][10]
Background
Before the polls closed in the June 7 primaries, the AP stated that Clinton has 2,383 delegates, including 571 superdelegates The AP reports that Sanders has a total of 1,569, including 48 superdelegates. Without counting superdelegates, Clinton still leads with 1,812 compared to Sanders’ 1,521, but Clinton’s lead is short of the 2,383 needed to win the nomination.[11] NBC News determined that Clinton has 2,384 delegates, including 572 superdelegates, while Sanders has 1,566, including 46 superdelegates.[4] CNN’s count showed Clinton with 2,384 delegates, including 572 superdelegates and Sanders with 1,572, including 47 superdelegates.[12]
Delegates: pledged and unpledged
There are two basic types of Democratic convention delegates: pledged and unpledged. Pledged delegates are won by a candidate in state contests, like the Iowa caucuses. While rules vary from state to state, a candidate can win some delegates, even if they don’t win the overall contest, by clearing a minimum requirement (such as winning in a particular congressional district). Pledged delegates are required to cast their votes for the candidate to whom they were bound during a primary or caucus.
Unpledged delegates, also known as superdelegates, are a type of delegate in the Democratic nominating process made up of members of Congress, governors, members of the Democratic National Committee, and “Distinguished Party Leaders"—a category that includes former presidents.[13]
In 2016, there are a total of 4,763 Democratic delegate votes available, including 714 superdelegate votes, and a candidate will need 2,383 to win the nomination.[14]
Superdelegates are significant because they can help determine the nomination in a tight contest. Unlike pledged delegates, superdelegates are not required to vote for the winner of the state primary or caucus that they will represent at the national convention; they can choose to endorse any candidate they wish. They can also change their mind after initially settling on a particular candidate. Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.), who is running for the U.S. Senate, let internet users decide how he would use his superdelegate vote. Following an online contest on his campaign website, he endorsed Sanders.[15]
Superdelegates were introduced to the process after the 1980 election to allow party and elected officials to exert more control over the system and to help nominate what they considered to be the most electable candidate.[16][17]
For most of their existence, superdelegates went relatively unnoticed. In the 1984 election, it was superdelegates who helped Walter Mondale, the establishment-favored candidate, clinch the nomination over Gary Hart.[18] The issue of superdelegates also came into play in 2008, when Clinton and then-Senator Barack Obama were locked in a close race for pledged delegates. Both campaigns engaged in lobbying superdelegates for their support. In 2008, Obama eventually claimed victory by surpassing the critical threshold of 2,118 delegates following the South Dakota and Montana primaries. Obama ended the process with 2,229.5 delegates, including 463 superdelegates, according to Real Clear Politics. Clinton ended with 1,896.5 delegates, including 275 superdelegates.[19]
Similar to 2016, Clinton began 2008 with a strong superdelegate lead. At the time of the New Hampshire primary, Clinton led Obama 154 to 50.[20] But Obama’s popularity grew as he won nominating contests and kept the race for pledged delegates close, eventually edging ahead of Clinton among pledged delegates (though he needed superdelegates to reach the threshold for victory).
According to the FiveThirtyEight, there were dozens of superdelegates who switched from Clinton to Obama.[20] Most of Obama’s superdelegates were reportedly undecided before endorsing. By May 2008, Obama had surpassed Clinton in the superdelegate count.[21]
Superdelegates tend to grow in influence in the months leading up to the convention when no candidate has a clear chance of accumulating enough delegates to claim the nomination through the caucuses and primaries. That is because superdelegates can back one candidate over another irrespective of how their state voted in a primary or caucus, or whether they had initially pledged their vote to another candidate.
Conclusion
Media outlets have essentially called the Democratic presidential primary for Hillary Clinton, noting that she has 2,383 delegates when counting superdelegates who have pledged their vote to her, according to surveys.
Bernie Sanders disputes this conclusion. He tweeted, "Pundits and the political press wanna call this race early before every person votes. Let's show them we ain't gonna let it happen. Go vote."
Did the media call the Democratic presidential primary too soon? Yes. Superdelegates do not vote for a nominee until the Democratic National Convention, which begins July 25. Since superdelegates are free to vote however they want, some could change their minds between the time they were surveyed in June and the convention. And because superdelegates are not identified by the AP, NBC News, or CNN, they could change their minds and not face any individual public repercussions—though this is something many superdelegates have been unwilling to do.Cite error: Closing </ref> missing for <ref> tag
See also
Launched in October 2015 and active through October 2018, Fact Check by Ballotpedia examined claims made by elected officials, political appointees, and political candidates at the federal, state, and local levels. We evaluated claims made by politicians of all backgrounds and affiliations, subjecting them to the same objective and neutral examination process. As of 2025, Ballotpedia staff periodically review these articles to revaluate and reaffirm our conclusions. Please email us with questions, comments, or concerns about these articles. To learn more about fact-checking, click here.
Sources and Notes
- ↑ The New York Times, "Hillary Clinton Has Clinched Democratic Nomination, Survey Reports," June 6, 2016
- ↑ Reuters, "While Sanders vows to keep fighting, Clinton wraps up nomination," June 7, 2016
- ↑ AP, "AP count: Clinton has delegates to win Democratic nomination," June 6, 2016
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 NBC News, "Clinton Hits 'Magic Number' of Delegates to Clinch Nomination," June 6, 2016
- ↑ CNN, "How CNN's count put Clinton over the top," June 6, 2016
- ↑ CNN, "Clinton is close, but Sanders not ready to give up," June 6, 2016
- ↑ CNN, "Sanders: 'The Democratic National Convention will be a contested convention,'" June 4, 2016
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Sun-Sentinel, Wexler says superdelegates should reflect will of voters," February 8, 2008
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedpost - ↑ AP, "Delegate math: Clinton wins, and how AP counts delegates," June 7, 2016
- ↑ CNN, "2016 Election Center," accessed June 7, 2016
- ↑ Vox, "Every single Democratic superdelegate, in one chart," February 22, 2016
- ↑ Democratic National Committee Office of Party Affairs and Delegate Selection, "2016 Democratic National Convention Delegate/Alternate Allocation," February 19, 2016
- ↑ Alan Grayson's Emails, "I Feel the Bern," February 29, 2016
- ↑ Congressional Research Service, "The Presidential Nominating Process and the National Party Conventions, 2016: Frequently Asked Questions," December 30, 2015
- ↑ U.S. News and World Report, "Meet the Superdelegates: Clinton, Obama Fight for the Party Elite," February 13, 2008
- ↑ The Gadsen Times, "'Super-delegates' did it for Mondale," July 27, 1984
- ↑ Real Clear Politics, "2008 Democratic Delegates," accessed February 26, 2016
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 FiveThirtyEight, "Superdelegates Might Not Save Hillary Clinton," February 12, 2016
- ↑ ABC News, "Obama Now Takes The Lead in Superdelegates Too," May 9, 2008
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