The McGovern-Fraser Commission had banned ex officio delegates so as to ensure that the nomination process was controlled by ordinary voters. The result was a convention in 1972 in which there were relatively few party leaders or officeholders. That convention also then selected a nominee who badly lost the general election, which party leaders blamed on the absence of officeholders and party leaders. To prevent the nomination of an unelectable candidate in the future, the party decided to reserve a small number delegate spots for party leaders and officeholders (PLEOs), but the PLEOs were pledged to support the candidates favored by party voters in their state’s primary election or caucus. Following another general election loss in 1980, the Democrats created a category of unpledged delegates who could support any candidate they wished – the so-called “superdelegates.” Although the superdelegates never played a decisive role in the selection of the nominee, fears that they would do so mounted over time, and in 2018, the Democratic Party stripped the superdelegates of the right to vote in the first round of balloting, effectively ending their influence in the process.