Tulsi Gabbard launches petition to end Democratic Party superdelegate process

The Democratic presidential primary process may be ending next Tuesday, but the fight among Bernie Sanders supporters to rid the party of superdelegates and install new leadership at the Democratic National Committee is not.

Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard encouraged her followers on Saturday to sign a petition ending the Democratic Party’s use of superdelegates.


“Whether you are a Bernie Sanders supporter or a Hillary Clinton supporter, we should all agree that unelected party officials and lobbyists should not have a say in who the presidential nominee of our party is,” she wrote in a Facebook post. “That should be left up to the voters.”

Gabbard resigned as a vice chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee in February to publicly endorse the Vermont senator’s campaign.

Gabbard isn’t alone in the fight: The West Virginia Democratic Party at its state convention Saturday passed a resolution calling for the elimination of superdelegates, or that superdelegates be required “in each state to vote in the same relative proportion as the elected delegates of the state they represent.”

Sanders defeated Clinton in the May 10 West Virginia Democratic primary, 51.4 percent to 35.8 percent. He picked up 18 delegates; Clinton picked up 11, according to the Associated Press.

The party also passed a resolution calling for the resignation of DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

“… If she does not resign in a timely manner, we call on the Democratic National Committee [to] take whatever steps are necessary and proper to remove her and install a new Chairperson,” the resolution reads.

Sanders last month said he supported Wasserman Schultz’s primary opponent, Tim Canova, and, if elected president, said he wouldn’t want her to continue leading the DNC.