Thank you for your well reasoned explanation of your support for Secretary Clinton. Over and over this election season I’ve been surprised at how many voters don’t really understand the primary process and how our party selects its nominee for president. At the end of the day, the party chooses the nominee at the convention, and then the population has its chance to choose one of the candidates in the general election, held across party lines.

The primary process is a way of including the voters in the party in the process; the party members in each state participate through primaries or caucuses, and in the end, we have the pledged delegates. The party reserves some votes for itself — the super delegates. Your job is to select the candidate that you feel will best represent the party in the general and as you say, best do the job of president. Your vote is not meant to represent the party members in your state; that’s what the primary or caucus is for. In your role as super delegate, you represent the party, and you have an obligation to select the candidate that will best lead our party. And you represent yourself, and you have the right to make your own choice. At whatever time you see fit.

I am so very sorry some of your constituents are upset at how you are discharging your responsibility as a super delegate to the Democratic National Convention, and confusing it with how you are currently or should futurely discharge your duties as their elected representative. Hopefully as we near the end of this long grueling process of the primaries, we can begin to come together and join to elect a Democrat in November.