According to a recent Politico report, Democratic Party leaders, concerned about the apparent momentum being gained by U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign, are considering changing convention rules in ways that could ultimately make it harder for Sanders to secure the nomination. No matter how strongly one may disagree with Sander’s policies, that is a terrible idea, as we saw in 2016, and such efforts can backfire.
As the 2016 primary unfolded, the Republican “establishment” became increasingly concerned about the support being garnered by Donald J. Trump’s campaign as it nearly won in Iowa and went on to rack up significant victories in New Hampshire and South Carolina. And the “powers that be” went into full-on panic mode after Super Tuesday when Trump won seven of the nine states being contested. Soon, party “wise men” began publicly warning Republicans that this unconventional candidate would never be viable in a general election and conversations began to intensify around rule changes that would make it more difficult for Trump to secure the nomination.
Obviously, the strategy didn’t work. In fact, the reaction galvanized support for Trump, energizing Republicans and Independents who did not like being told what to do by an out-of-touch establishment in Washington. Trump effectively used these reports to raise the prospect of an election process being “rigged” and charged that the process was “100 percent corrupt.”
My boss at the time, Senator Bob Corker, issued a stern warning: “I have been repulsed by those who try to direct the electoral process in a certain direction and say, 'Well, no matter what people do, we're going to cause this to happen at the convention.’ To me, that's inappropriate.”
That advice was good then and is still just as true today.
According to recent reports in Politico:
“A small group of Democratic National Committee members has privately begun gauging support for a plan to potentially weaken Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign and head off a brokered convention.
“In conversations on the sidelines of a DNC executive committee meeting and in telephone calls and texts in recent days, about a half-dozen members have discussed the possibility of a policy reversal to ensure that so-called superdelegates can vote on the first ballot at the party’s national convention. Such a move would increase the influence of DNC members, members of Congress and other top party officials, who now must wait until the second ballot to have their say if the convention is contested.”
If recent history tells us anything, it is that cooking up such a strategy may well only intensify the support the Democratic “establishment” is hoping to curb. No doubt, a democracy can be beautifully messy, but in the end, voters have a way of getting it right and changing the rules mid-way through not only sets a dangerous precedent, it is also likely to backfire.
Womack is the president and CEO of Bridge Public Affairs and former chief of staff and staff director for U.S. Senator Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He has served in senior leadership on a number of successful statewide campaigns, including Corker’s victory in 2006, which distinguished him as the only Republican elected to the U.S. Senate that year. Womack later managed the team that led to Corker’s 2012 reelection with nearly 65 percent of the vote.