According to RealClearPolitics, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has nearly a quarter of the necessary 2,383 delegates to gain her party’s nomination. But her big lead over rival Bernie Sanders is almost entirely due to pledged superdelegates: politicians or party leaders that will get their own say at this summer’s Democratic National Convention.
Kentucky's superdelegates will be finalized next week. Congressman John Yarmuth will be one because he’s Kentucky’s lone Democrat in Washington. Yarmuth has already endorsed Hillary Clinton.
The new chair of the Kentucky Democratic Party, state Rep. Sannie Overly, will also get a vote, as will her vice-chair who has not yet been named. Paducah mayoral candidate Brandi Harless would have been a superdelegate as vice-chair under Patrick Hughes.
KDP spokesman Daniel Lowry says a new vice-chair will be named by March 1, which is also when the Democratic National Committee will let the state party know how many and which superdelegates can be seated at the convention in Philadelphia.
The Republican party uses superdelegates as well, but they are far less important in the nomination process and must vote in agreement with their state's primary or caucus outcome.
