DRAFT: Who are the Democratic superdelegates?

Superdelegates are members of the Democratic Party who are free to vote for any candidate they choose at the nominating convention in August. They’re mostly made up of Democratic elected officials, party officials and former party leaders. Superdelegates have come to the forefront because they could decide whether Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton becomes the presidential nominee; if neither candidate wins 2,025 pledged delegates during the primary and caucus season.

If you can't access the table below, follow this link for a sortable table of the superdelegates.

The informal term “superdelegate” is applied to unpledged PLEOs (party leaders and elected officials), whose status is independent of primary and caucus results. They are assigned by the Democratic National Committee and their membership is not confined to the current election cycle. In addition, there are "unpledged add-on delegates" who are selected by the states after their primary or caucus. There are 76 such slots for this election, and only a few have been selected at this time.

How you get to 793 Democratic superdelegates:

The table below contains all of the 721 unpledged PLEOs, as listed by the DNC as of April 3, 2008. Also included are the 23 unpledged PLEOs living in Florida, as well as Michigan's 26, although they will likely not get to vote at the convention because their states violated primary scheduling rules. The eight Democrats Abroad delegates only get half of a vote each, so that means the official number of unpledged PLEOs is 717. When all of the 76 add-on delegates are assigned, the total is 794.

To sort the table, click on the column headers:



Sources: Democratic National Committee; Flordia and Michigan Democratic parties
If you see problems or have updates for this list, please email jcornetto@mcclatchyinteractive.com