CHANGE: Democrats strip power away from superdelegates.

So-called superdelegates – members of the Democratic National Committee, elected officials, and other party elders who are allowed to support any presidential nominee they choose – will now be barred from voting on the first ballot to select the nominee at the 2020 Democratic convention unless a candidate has already earned enough pledged delegates through the state caucus and primary elections to secure the nomination. Superdelegates will only be allowed to weigh in on the first ballot if no candidate has earned a majority of pledged delegates and a second ballot is required to choose a nominee – though no convention has gone to multiple ballots since 1952.

The aim of the reforms, DNC Chairman Tom Perez wrote in a letter to DNC members, was to address a “perceived lack of transparency in our presidential primary process” and “perceptions of undue influence in favor of particular candidates.” He was referring to frustrations voiced by those who supported Sanders that the vast majority of superdelegates – who represented about 15 percent of the total delegates – publicly backed then-candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016. They did not ultimately change the outcome of the election, but Clinton needed those delegates to clinch the nomination.

The way is cleared for a “democratic” socialist to have a real shot at the Democratic nomination in 2020.