Superdelegate
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A superdelegate is a delegate to the Democratic national convention by virtue of holding office rather than being elected as a delegate as part of the primary system.
20% of the delegates to the Democratic national convention are superdelegates, giving them power to change the outcome in a close race for the presidential nomination.
The Democrats adopted this system of superdelegates to avert another fiasco like that experienced in 1972, when the purely democratic nomination process produced an electable candidate for president, George McGovern.