New Hampshire Democratic primary winner Bernie Sanders won over his first state superdelegate Thursday, breaking a tie here with Hillary Clinton for delegate support.
Seacoast state Sen. Martha Fuller Clark said in a Facebook post she would support the Vermont Senator at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. But Fuller Clark added she will back Clinton if the former secretary of state is the Democratic presidential nominee.
“It has been exhilarating to see so many young people become enthusiastic with Senator Sanders’ campaign,” wrote Fuller Clark, who is also vice chairwoman of the state Democratic party. “I will work hard to include his progressive agenda in our Democratic platform regardless who wins the nomination.”
Delegates choose the party’s presidential nominee at the Democratic convention in late July, and neither candidate has won enough to clinch the nomination yet. The latest count by the Associated Press shows Clinton 74 delegates short of the necessary 2,383 delegates. Sanders has 1,539.
Pledged delegates are awarded to candidates based on state election outcomes. Superdelegates, like Fuller Clark, are party officials who can support the candidate of their choice.
Six of New Hampshire’s eight superdelegates, including Gov. Maggie Hassan and U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, have said they will back Clinton. State Democratic Party Chairman Ray Buckley must remain neutral. Fuller Clark had been neutral, but said party rules require she now declare her support.
Sanders defeated Clinton in the state’s Democratic presidential primary by a 60 to 38 percent margin. He earned 15 of the state’s 24 pledged delegates, to Clinton’s nine. Clinton tied Sanders when superdelegates were included, a point of contention among Sanders’s supporters.
New Hampshire’s lopsided six-to-one superdelegate split in favor of Clinton follows the national trend. Clinton has support from 540 superdelegates, compared with Sanders’s 42, according a tally by the Associated Press.
The Sanders campaign and Fuller Clark did not return request for comment.
Fuller Clark urged Democrats in her Facebook message to come together behind the party’s eventual nominee. “I promise to work hard everyday to ensure that our nominee is elected this November. I urge all Democrats to do the same,” she wrote. “We simply cannot have Donald Trump as our next President!”
Hillary for New Hampshire State Director Mike Vlaccich said the campaign admires Fuller Clark, and is also proud of an endorsement Clinton received this week from House Minority Leader Steve Shurtleff.
“What was clear in both Senator Fuller Clark and Leader Shurtleff’s messages,” he said, “is that they are committed to uniting Democrats to prevent Donald Trump from wreaking havoc on New Hampshire families’ economic future and this country’s safety.”
(Allie Morris can be reached at 369-3307 or at amorris@cmonitor.com.)