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Clinton Campaign Fights For, But Loses, One Single Delegate At The Democrats Abroad Global Convention

By Dawn Papple
Published on: 04:52 PST, May 14, 2016

The most recent meeting of the Democrats Abroad Global Convention began early in Germany with the Credentials Committee meeting to hear a challenge made by Hillary Clinton’s campaign about the allocation of global delegates. Earlier this spring, Democrats Abroad allocated its 13 pledged delegates proportionally according to the outcome of the Democrats Abroad Global Presidential Primary. Senator Sanders won just under 70 percent of the vote among Americans living abroad during the primary, so he was awarded nine delegates, including all four of the global “at-large” delegates.

Hillary Clinton’s campaign argued that in Delegates Abroad, there are two distinct classes of delegates: regional at-large delegates and global at-large delegates. The Clinton campaign objected to the proportional allocation that was set up and argued that each class of delegates should be allocated proportionally and independently, which would have meant a single additional delegate for Hillary Clinton. The Clinton campaign officially argued that that three of the four global delegates should go to Senator Sanders, and one of the four global delegates should go to Mrs. Clinton, according to Democrats Abroad.

The Rules Committee rejected the Clinton campaign’s challenge to the re-allocation of delegates in a way that would have taken one delegate from Sanders and handed it to Clinton. Sanders’ supporters abroad say that the fact that a fight over one single delegate at the Global Convention proves that Hillary Clinton’s campaign knows the race for the nomination is not over.

“We have three regions—EMEA, Americas, and Asia-Pacific—and 9 of our 13 ‘at-large’ delegates (are allocated across those three regions. So that meant that 5 delegates were given to EMEA (3 for Bernie, 2 for Hillary), 2 to Asia-Pacific (1 and 1) and 2 to the Americans (again, 1 and 1). The four remaining delegates are not bound to a specific region,” Delegates Abroad explained.

A Democrats Abroad email stated that the fight over one single delegate indicates that the Democratic nomination process is not over. The fight began in March and persisted through the Democrats Abroad Global Convention this weekend, when ultimately, the Clinton campaign conceded after the ruling had been made.

According to Eric Lee, founding editor of LabourStart, though the Clinton campaign finally conceded to accept the Rules Committee ruling, their challenge “had no basis.” Lee announced the rejection of the Clinton campaign’s challenge on Facebook.

“Good news from the Democrats Abroad Global Convention: The Rules committee has rejected the Clinton campaign’s challenge to the allocation of delegates. Which means that the Sanders campaign gets its full allocation of 9 delegates, most of whom have now been elected. On to Philadelphia, where Larry Sanders will, we hope, announce that we cast 9 votes for his kid brother, Bernard.”

Lee says that Clinton’s campaign stated that it will not pursue the issue at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.

“While I welcome their statement, I still think that their attempt to snatch an additional delegate was wrong from the start, and does little to inspire confidence and build trust between the two campaigns.”

“Good that we can finally put this behind us, but it should never have happened in the first place.”

Clinton emissary to the convention, Amy Bondurant, spoke highly of the former Secretary of State to The Local and argued against the idea that Sanders’ major victory in the Democrats Abroad primary showed what the rest of the world thinks of Clinton’s actions as Secretary of State. Bondurant said, “The demographic abroad changes very fast. The Democrats Abroad vote does not in any way reflect on her very widely acclaimed tenure as Secretary of State.”

For further information about the delegate allocation for Democrats Abroad and the breakdown according to regional and non-regional delegate allocation, you can read more from Democrats Abroad.

[Image via Facebook]

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