WASHINGTON -- Hillary Rodham Clinton has locked up support from half of the Democratic Party insiders who will cast ballots at the party's national convention.
With two months before primary voters start going to the polls, The Associated Press has spent the past two weeks contacting all 712 so-called superdelegates and heard back from more than 80 percent. They were asked which candidate they plan to support at the convention next summer.
The 712 superdelegates make up about 30 percent of the 2,382 delegates needed to clinch the Democratic nomination.
The results:
Clinton: 359.
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont: 8.
Former Gov. Martin O'Malley of Maryland: 2.
Uncommitted: 210.
If the superdelegates' support holds to the party's convention, Clinton already would have 15 percent of the delegates she needs before the first voters go to the primary polls.
Superdelegates are convention delegates who can support any candidate, no matter whom voters choose in the primaries and caucuses. They are members of Congress and other elected officials, party leaders and members of the Democratic National Committee.
The Associated Press counted only public, on-the-record endorsements.
Clinton is also leading most preference polls in the race for the Democratic nomination. Sanders has made some inroads in New Hampshire, which holds the first presidential primary, and continues to attract huge crowds with his populist message about income inequality.
"We recognize Secretary Clinton has enormous support based on many years working with and on behalf of many party leaders in the Democratic Party," said Tad Devine, a senior adviser to the Sanders campaign. "But Sen. Sanders will prove to be the strongest candidate, with his ability to coalesce and bring young people to the polls the way that Barack Obama did."
"The best way to win support from superdelegates is to win support from voters," said Devine, a longtime expert on the Democrats' nominating process.
The Clinton campaign has been working for months to secure endorsements from superdelegates.
Clinton has hired President Barack Obama's top delegate strategist from the 2008 campaign, lawyer Jeff Berman, an expert on the party's nomination rules.
In December 2007, Clinton had public endorsements from 169 superdelegates, according to an AP survey. At the time, Obama had 63 and a handful of other candidates had commitments, as well, from the smaller fraction of superdelegates willing to commit to a candidate.
"Our campaign is working hard to earn the support of every caucus-goer, primary voter and grass-roots and grass-top leaders," said Clinton campaign spokesman Jesse Ferguson. "Since day one we have not taken this nomination for granted, and that will not change."
Few superdelegates openly criticized Sanders, and a handful endorsed him.
"I've heard him talk about many subjects, and I can't say there is anything I disagree with," said Chad Nodland, a DNC member from North Dakota who is backing Sanders.
However, Nodland added, if Clinton is the party's nominee, "I will knock on doors for her. There are just more issues I agree with Bernie."
For Arkansas, the state's five superdelegates said they plan to back Clinton, who served 12 years as Arkansas' first lady when former President Bill Clinton was governor. She won the state's primary in 2008 and has made a handful of campaign appearances in the state over the past year.
"She's the hometown candidate. We're getting to do this again," said state Democratic Party Chairman Vince Insalaco, a longtime friend of the Clintons who is backing her bid for the nomination. Insalaco said his support wasn't an endorsement by the party.
"I believe very strongly she will be the best person to push the principles of the Democratic Party ahead," he said.
Former state Attorney General Dustin McDaniel, who chaired Clinton's 2008 bid, said he's again supporting her campaign. McDaniel said he's known Clinton since he was a kid and believes she's the most qualified.
Some superdelegates said they were unwilling to publicly commit to candidates before voters have a say. A few said they have concerns about Clinton, who has been dogged about her use of a private email account and server while serving as secretary of state.
"If it boils down to anything, I'm not sure about the trust factor," said Danica Oparnica, a DNC member from Arizona. "She has been known to tell some outright lies, and I can't tolerate that."
But others said they were won over by Clinton's hours of testimony before a GOP-led committee investigating the attack on a U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya.
"I don't think that there's any candidate right now, Democrat or Republican, that could actually face up to that and come out with people shaking their heads and saying, 'That is one bright, intelligent person,'" said Rep. Tony Cardenas, D-Calif.
Information for this article was contributed by Phillip Lucas, Randall Chase, James MacPherson, Jonathan Cooper, Bob Christie, Juliet Williams and Andrew DeMillo of The Associated Press.
A Section on 11/14/2015