Members of Arkansas’s Democratic Party will be meeting this weekend to select the state’s 32 delegates to head to the nominating convention in Philadelphia in July.
State party chair Vincent Insalaco says beyond picking 10 delegates to represent Senator Bernie Sanders, and 22 for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the nominees are required to represent the diversity of Arkansas itself.
"That includes everything from gender, age, race, sexual orientation and so forth," including veterans with disabilities, he says. Over 150 people are vying to be delegates.
Insalaco says the delegate selection process highlights the merits of superdelegates. He says originally, delegate spots were monopolized by local party leaders, who used to compete to become delegates, narrowing out opportunities for others.
"If you were a governor, senator, party chair, [or] congressman, you were elected. So if you were a regular folk, [a] person from Black Rock running against the governor, it was pretty difficult," he says.
All five superdelegates from Arkansas have committed to supporting party nominee Hillary Clinton. They are Lottie Shackelford, Vincent Insalaco, Joyce Elliot, Krystal Thrailkill, and Dustin McDaniel
