'This is About You'

In New Video, Kennedy Campaign Denounces DNC's Primary Election Rules

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is meeting on Thursday, September 14 to confirm its party rules and to discuss possible changes to them. 

In anticipation of the DNC’s meeting, the Kennedy campaign released a new video emphasizing Kennedy's concerns about the fairness of the primary election process. 

At Thursday’s meeting, the DNC is expected to make changes, manipulating the primary election delegate allocation process to stack the deck in favor of party insiders and thwart the will of the voters.

In a fair election, if a candidate gets 60 percent of the vote in a primary, he/she would get 60 percent of the delegates allocated at the nominating convention. However, according to the so-called “superdelegate” system, the Party Leaders and Elected Officials (PLEOs), who currently make up 15 percent of delegates, can vote for any candidate they wish to vote for (on the second round) and are not required to vote according to the will of the people. The DNC created PLEO delegates in 2020. Concerns arise because these PLEOs are unlikely to support insurgent candidates, making it highly likely that their votes will all be allocated to President Joe Biden. If the DNC decides to increase the percentage of PLEOs even further, and/or allow the PLEOs to vote on the first round, a candidate such as Kennedy could get, say, 70 percent of the vote from the people, but the nomination could still go to Biden.

The superdelegate system has been a source of controversy and debate. Critics argue that it can be undemocratic since it allows party elites to potentially override the will of the voters. Supporters, on the other hand, suggest that superdelegates provide valuable experience and judgment in selecting the party's nominee.

Kennedy notes that such a system undermines the principle of democratic representation. In the new video, titled, “This Is About You,” he emphasizes that people still have the power to turn things around. 

“I've come to understand that what our campaign really is, is the spearhead of a massive populist awakening,” he says in the video. “You see our nation's most serious problems come from a single source: entrenched, corporate, political elite. Government agencies, Congress, the defense industry, Wall Street, the media, Big Tech, Big Pharma, Big Ag, and pretty much big everything, have a death grip on our democracy. And there's only one thing that can break that grip. And no, it's not me. It's you, the people.”

Kennedy continues, “We have to take back power in this country for the people. Let me add one more item to the list of entrenched institutions, the Democratic National Committee. In an honest primary, the candidate with the most votes would be the nominee, right? But the DNC has imposed delegate rules that make it nearly impossible for an insurgent candidate to win. It has totally rigged the system.”

Kennedy has requested to meet the DNC this week but he has not received a response. 

This message comes at a critical time as Kennedy's campaign intensifies efforts to challenge the current state of primary elections and promote a more equitable and transparent system.