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Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders said in a recent interview that he would drop out of the presidential race if he doesn’t have the most delegates at the time of the Democratic convention in July.
What happened:
- Sanders said on “The Rachel Maddow Show” Wednesday night that he would leave the race if he has fewer delegates than Biden.
- Sanders said: “If Biden walks into the convention, or at the end of the process, (and) has more votes than me, he’s the winner.”
- He said allowing superdelegates to choose the nominee would be a problem. “I think it would be a real, real disaster for the Democratic Party. People would say ‘the person who won the most votes didn’t get selected.’ Not a good idea.”
Some more context:
- Newsweek said: “The senator stayed in the race against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016 despite having fewer delegates but said that a rules change after that election cycle makes the situation different this time.”
- Newsweek said: “At the end of the 2016 primaries, Democratic convention rules allowed superdelegates to vote on the first ballot, which is no longer the case in 2020. Instead, a candidate who has a majority of at least 1,991 delegates would automatically win on the first ballot. However, if a candidate only had a plurality of votes, a second ballot could potentially be decided by superdelegates.”