Even so, during and after the 2016 campaign, the Sanders campaign and his backers, attacked the nominating process as opaque and tilted in favor of the establishment. To help restore faith in the DNC, the organization last year agreed to reduce the influence of superdelegates.

The new rules dictate that superdelegates are “barred from voting on the first ballot to choose the party’s presidential nominee unless a candidate has secured a majority of the convention using only pledged delegates, whose votes are earned during the primary process.”

How does this help Sanders?

Well, it means that an ‘establishment’ candidate (i.e., an anti-Bernie candidate) won’t be able to build up an early, pre-primary lead among superdelegates, which can impact not only the number of delegates a candidate can claim, but can also impact perceptions of electability and viability.