The black superdelegates: A guide to the 100+ African Americans who may decide the election
by Keith Boykin
List & Article
They are the talk of the town...whatever town you happen to live in. They are the most coveted players in the American political universe right now. They are the superdelegates: 796 elected officials and Democratic party leaders who will decide if Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton will become the Democratic nominee for president.
But there is another subgroup we don't know as much about -- the black superdelegates. It's almost impossible to find a good list on the Internet of African American superdelegates. So we decided to create our own. It's a work in progress, and it will change rapidly, but we believe this is the most accurate and complete, publicly available list of black superdelegates.
Why is it so hard to find this information?
First, it's difficult to determine exactly who is or is not African American. We based our decisions on publicly available information. Using that approach, we were able to identify 111 black superdelegates.
Next, we had to figure out which superdelegates were supporting whom. That was even more challenging. We searched through multiple databases and sometimes came up with conflicting information. We tried to base our categorizations on information that was available in reliable public sources, such as newspapers and the candidates' own web sites.
Then we had to find contact information for everyone on our list. It was such a daunting task that we are still updating it as we publish this list. Our editorial board made the decision to publish the names, addresses and telephone numbers of all 111 African American superdelegates. In some cases, we made the decision to publish home telephone numbers, but only when those numbers were provided by the superdelegates themselves in a public forum.
We are also in the process of collecting email addresses for the 111 African American superdelegates on our list. We will be updating our list to include that information as we collect it.
Our purpose in publishing this information is not to harass the superdelegates or to violate their rights to privacy. Our purpose is to provide what we consider to be valuable public information to our readers.
We invite you to comment or email us to help us update this list, and we hope you will use this information responsibly and conscientiously.
* 4,049 total delegates
* 2,025 delegates needed to win nomination
* 796 total superdelegates (20% of total)
* 111 African American superdelegates
* 58 black superdelegates for Obama (52%)
* 34 black superdelegates for Clinton (31%)
* 19 "uncommitted" black superdelegates (17%)
* Superdelegates yet to be named and delegates from Michigan and Florida are not included in most media tallies
* Superdelegates from Michigan and Florida are included in The Daily Voice tally
* One superdelegate, Rep. Al Wynn (D-MD), will be resigning his seat in June and will not be a superdelegate at the Democratic National Convention in August
List & Article
(Editor's Note: List updated May 13, 2008)
Keith Boykin is editor of The Daily Voice, a host of the BET J TV show My Two Cents, and a regular political commentator on CNN and MSNBC.
by Keith Boykin
List & Article
They are the talk of the town...whatever town you happen to live in. They are the most coveted players in the American political universe right now. They are the superdelegates: 796 elected officials and Democratic party leaders who will decide if Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton will become the Democratic nominee for president.
But there is another subgroup we don't know as much about -- the black superdelegates. It's almost impossible to find a good list on the Internet of African American superdelegates. So we decided to create our own. It's a work in progress, and it will change rapidly, but we believe this is the most accurate and complete, publicly available list of black superdelegates.
Why is it so hard to find this information?
First, it's difficult to determine exactly who is or is not African American. We based our decisions on publicly available information. Using that approach, we were able to identify 111 black superdelegates.
Next, we had to figure out which superdelegates were supporting whom. That was even more challenging. We searched through multiple databases and sometimes came up with conflicting information. We tried to base our categorizations on information that was available in reliable public sources, such as newspapers and the candidates' own web sites.
Then we had to find contact information for everyone on our list. It was such a daunting task that we are still updating it as we publish this list. Our editorial board made the decision to publish the names, addresses and telephone numbers of all 111 African American superdelegates. In some cases, we made the decision to publish home telephone numbers, but only when those numbers were provided by the superdelegates themselves in a public forum.
We are also in the process of collecting email addresses for the 111 African American superdelegates on our list. We will be updating our list to include that information as we collect it.
Our purpose in publishing this information is not to harass the superdelegates or to violate their rights to privacy. Our purpose is to provide what we consider to be valuable public information to our readers.
We invite you to comment or email us to help us update this list, and we hope you will use this information responsibly and conscientiously.
* 4,049 total delegates
* 2,025 delegates needed to win nomination
* 796 total superdelegates (20% of total)
* 111 African American superdelegates
* 58 black superdelegates for Obama (52%)
* 34 black superdelegates for Clinton (31%)
* 19 "uncommitted" black superdelegates (17%)
* Superdelegates yet to be named and delegates from Michigan and Florida are not included in most media tallies
* Superdelegates from Michigan and Florida are included in The Daily Voice tally
* One superdelegate, Rep. Al Wynn (D-MD), will be resigning his seat in June and will not be a superdelegate at the Democratic National Convention in August
List & Article
(Editor's Note: List updated May 13, 2008)
Keith Boykin is editor of The Daily Voice, a host of the BET J TV show My Two Cents, and a regular political commentator on CNN and MSNBC.
