Tuesday night twenty delegates were pledged to the two Democratic presidential candidates in South Dakota. Both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders leave the state with ten delegates each.
However, the Democratic national convention in Philadelphia isn’t until late July.
State Democrats employ a proportional delegate system.
In addition to the 20 pledged delegates, five unpledged, or super delegates remain. They are former or current elected officials, including former Senate majority leader Tom Dascle.
Suzanne Jones Pranger is the Executive Director of the South Dakota Democratic Party. She says pledged delegates are required to vote for the candidate they are assigned to. But Jones Pranger adds that all of the delegates will have a say in the democratic process…
“Even though Secretary Clinton will be the presumptive nominee of the party, South Dakota will be sending ten Bernie Sanders delegates. So, they will go and get to have a part in the process, and coming up with a platform for the party, and they will be involved in that respect. So, the Sanders campaign will continue to have an impact on the Democratic Party at the national stage,” Jones Pranger says.
Jones Pranger says she’s looking forward to sending a diverse group of delegates to Philadelphia come July, thanks to the work of one prominent late Senator…
“George McGovern was one of the main proponents of the affirmative action plan that accompanies the Democratic delegate selection process. So, states across the country do have affirmative action goals, and actually are required to send equal numbers of male and female. So, our delegation is gender balanced. And, it also includes multiple Native Americans and we’ve surpassed our goal in that category, and we still have more delegates to select,” Jones Pranger says.
South Dakota’s Democratic Party has a goal of selecting delegates to include one black, one Hispanic, two Native American, three LGBT, three disabled and eight younger representatives, those under the age of 35.
For a companion piece on the state delegates to the Republican convention, click here.