Advertisement Updated: NH Democratic superdelegate Martha Fuller Clark backs Bernie Sanders Seacoast state senator, longtime party activist remained neutral for a year Share Shares Copy Link Copy

One of the two neutral superdelegates in the New Hampshire delegation to the Democratic National Convention has chosen a presidential candidate.New Hampshire Democratic Party first vice chair and state Sen. Martha Fuller Clark announced on Thursday that she will support Sen. Bernie Sanders at the Philadelphia convention, but she said that if former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is the nominee, she will back Clinton in the general election.“We simply cannot have Donald Trump as our next president!” she wrote on her Facebook page.Fuller Clark’s decision brings the delegate count estimate for New Hampshire to 16 for Sanders and 15 for Clinton. Six of the eight superdelegates are backing Clinton, while NHDP chair Ray Buckley is now the lone remaining neutral New Hampshire superdelegate. As a vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, he is prohibited from endorsing in presidential primaries.Fuller Clark is the first superdelegate from New Hampshire to back Sanders. She is also the 45th superdelegate nationally to back Sanders, while Clinton has the support of 543 superdelegates, according to The Associated Press delegate count. Overall, Clinton has 2,312 delegates to 1,546 for Sanders, according to the AP, and 2,383 are needed to win the nomination.New Hampshire superdelegates Gov. Maggie Hassan, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, U.S. Rep. Annie Kuster and DNC members Bill Shaheen, Kathy Sullivan and Joanne Dowdell endorsed Clinton during the presidential primary campaign.Sanders dominated the pledged delegate category in New Hampshire, 15-9, and he won the New Hampshire Democratic primary over Clinton in a landslide, 60 percent to 38 percent.Kurt Ehrenberg, the former political director of Sanders' New Hampshire campaign, welcomed Fuller Clark's support."Sen. Fuller Clark is a major player in Democratic politics in this state and on the Democratic National Committee, so this is quite meaningful," Ehrnberg said. "And I think it may help move other superdelegates in that direction.""We maintain that superdelegates should reflect the vote of the primary," he said. "We welcome this endorsement."Fuller Clark wrote that she decided about a year ago to remain neutral in the primary process in order to “help the state party provide a level playing field for all.”But she wrote that a rule in the Democratic National Committee's official 2016 Call for the Convention now requires her to declare who she will vote for as an “automatic unpledged delegate,” or superdelegate, at the convention.According to a state Democratic Party spokesman, in late April, six of the eight superdelegates were certified as supporting Clinton, and Fuller Clark was certified as supporting Sanders, in accordance with the article in the Call for the Convention.Thursday night update: Fuller Clark said in an interview that she was told by Buckley “some time ago” that she was required to make a decision on a candidate. She said at that time, she decided on Sanders.But she said she waited until Thursday to announce it because she did not want to have any interference with her work in the Senate.“As I understand it, this is a relatively new requirement that happened during the Obama administration,” Fuller Clark said. “I was surprised and didn’t know about it until (Buckley) told me about it.”Fuller Clark said that she does not believe that the superdelegates who are supporting Clinton should necessarily change their allegiance to Sanders as a result of the lopsided New Hampshire primary vote in his favor.“Everybody is entitled to their own preference,” she said. “And I do know that almost every one of them came out before the primary.”She also noted that superdelegates can change their minds at any time, but she said she intends to vote for Sanders on the first ballot “unless the dynamics change before the convention.”“In her Facebook announcement, Fuller Clark wrote, "It has been exhilarating to see so many young people become enthusiastic with Senator Sanders' campaign. Across the nation, millions of young people have become engaged for the first time in the political process. That is particularly true here in New Hampshire, especially in my district which includes the University of New Hampshire campus. It is my hope that those young people will feel that, in me, they have an advocate in the leadership of the New Hampshire Democratic Party.”“I believe those millions of young people are attracted to Senator Sanders' candidacy because of his bold progressive agenda. Senator Sanders' positions on the important issues from reducing income inequality to supporting a livable minimum wage and from promoting free post-secondary education or training and to getting big money out of politics are in line with my values as well.”“It is for these reasons that I proudly add my vote as a "super delegate" to those supporting Senator Bernie Sanders,” Fuller Clark wrote.She continued, “I will work hard to include his progressive agenda in our Democratic platform regardless who wins the nomination. We can use both the New Hampshire and national Democratic conventions to renew our sense of shared purpose behind candidates and platforms that represent the fundamental values we adhere to, along with an aggressive policy agenda, for moving America forward.”View Fuller Clark’s full statement here.State Republican Party chairwoman Jennifer Horn issued a statement applauding Fuller Clark for “respecting the will of the voters” in the Democratic primary and blasted four of the six superdelegates who are backing Clinton."It is disgraceful that other Democrat superdelegates, including Gov. Maggie Hassan, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, William Shaheen and Congresswoman Kuster have turned their backs on thousands of grassroots activists by ignoring Bernie’s landslide victory and blindly supporting Hillary Clinton,” Horn said.“New Hampshire Republicans are committed to upholding the integrity of our elections and we congratulate Senator Fuller Clark for bravely standing up to corruption in her own party,” Horn said.