Brace yourself folks, if you pay attention to the news, even the slightest bit, you're going to hear this term a ton in the coming months: Super delegate. It's likely you already may have heard the term this year, probably by a talking head on a cable news channel in the days following a primary or caucus.
Standard issue super delegate shield...okay so not really, but wouldn't that be kinda cool?.Photo: US News & World Report
But what exactly is a super delegate and why will we be hearing about them so much? A super-delegate is a delegate (only in the Democratic Party) that will be present at the Democratic National Conventione (held this year in Denver) that has not been elected during a states primary, unlike regular delegates. Instead they are designated as a delegate by the Democratic Party and are free to choose any candidate, in this year's case Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton. Traditional delegates must vote for the candidate that their state chose during their primary or caucus. One candidate must receive 2,025 total delegate votes to seal the nomination and out of the estimated total of 4,049 delegates that will vote at the convention there are799 designated as super.
Due to the fact that neither Obama or Clinton have emerged as a front runner these 799 may be the deciding factor for which candidate gets the nomination, making it the first time since the 1960's that a candidate was chosen at the convention. Undoubtedly, this term, if it hasn't already, will become the major buzz word in the Democratic nomination process.