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MoveOn Praises Sen. Leahy’s Position on Superdelegates, Calls on Media Outlets to Remove Superdelegates from Delegate Counts

Over the weekend, Senator Patrick Leahy clarified his position on superdelegates and the race to be the Democratic nominee for President, saying that while he personally supports Secretary Clinton, his delegate vote will go to the candidate with the most pledged delegates at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia this summer.

Ilya Sheyman, executive director of MoveOn.org Political Action, praised Senator Leahy’s announcement in the following statement and urged all superdelegates to follow his lead in supporting the winner of the most pledged delegates:

“While superdelegates are free to endorse whichever candidate they prefer, when it comes time to select the party’s nominee at the Democratic National Convention, they should follow Senator Patrick Leahy’s lead, and honor the will of the voters in primaries and caucuses from around the country.  Party insiders should never control the outcome of an election, and the party’s base will not tolerate any anti-democratic efforts by superdelegates to thwart the will of the people.

“We applaud Senator Leahy for putting country and party ahead of personal preferences and urge all 719 Democratic superdelegates to do the same.

“Superdelegates will not decide the outcome of the Democratic primary, and media outlets should stop reporting superdelegates in total delegate counts to more accurately reflect the truth: the race to be the Democratic nominee for president is far from over.”

Earlier this year, nearly 190,000 MoveOn members signed onto a petition urging Democratic superdelegates to let voters decide the outcome of the Democratic primary. More than 400,000 MoveOn members have since taken action calling on local, state and national superdelegates to support the will of Democratic Party voters and whoever has won the most pledged delegates at the Democratic National Convention this summer.