What two forms of delegate selection are used in the presidential nominating process

The Founding Fathers created a republic, “a government which derives all its powers directly or indirectly from the great body of the people.” Because they were concerned that presidential elections would become occasions for “tumult and disorder,” they agreed upon a system for electing presidents indirectly. The original electoral process established in Article II included the Electoral College and a complicated set of rules by which these electors cast their votes. The increasing role of parties had led to complicated election results in 1796 and 1800, so by 1804 Americans passed the 12th Amendment which loosened the rules to allow political parties to play a much greater role in presidential elections.

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Questions to Consider
The Democratic Party
The Republican Party
Links to Other Resources

Presidential candidates are generally determined through a political party’s nomination process. The broad rules of the nomination process are set by the national committee of each party, which means the candidate selection processes can vary between different political parties.

Nomination processes consist of two main types of elections held at the state level: primaries and caucuses. The party committee in each state determines the rules that will govern their particular election contest. Primaries and caucuses can be binding or non-binding, winner-take-all or proportional, and open or closed. (Read the glossary below to see what these terms mean in the context of an election.) Each candidate’s goal in these contests is to amass the most delegates prior to the party’s national convention, and thus to win the party’s nomination.

Glossary

Primary: Like in “regular” elections, participants go to local polling stations and vote for their preferred candidate in the privacy of a single person voting booth.
Caucus: Essentially, caucus-goers gather in a local meeting place to determine who will be awarded their delegate(s). The voting process for caucuses differs between political parties and between the states, but in most instances, they are more public and include deliberations and discussions among the caucus attendees. These discussions and deliberations can occur before, during, or after voting. It also isn’t uncommon for caucuses to have multiple rounds of voting.
Delegates: Representatives who cast votes at a political party’s national convention.
Binding: If a primary or caucus is “binding” that means the delegates won in that contest are legally bound to vote for a particular candidate at the party’s national convention.
Non-Binding: If a primary or caucus is “non-binding” that means the delegates won in that contest are not legally bound to vote for a particular candidate at the party’s national convention.
Winner-take-all: The winner in this type of contest (which is generally a primary) is awarded all the delegates in that state.
Proportional: Delegates are awarded to each candidate based on how well they performed in the contest. Most proportional contests have a minimum threshold that candidates much reach to be awarded delegates.
Open: Persons of all political affiliations can vote in this type of contest.
Closed: Only persons registered as affiliated with the party holding the contest can vote. But wait, there’s more! Delegates won via a state contest are known as pledged delegates, in other words, they are pledged to a particular candidate. There is another category of delegates known as unpledged or super delegates. Unpledged delegates are mostly comprised of current and former party leaders and officials. They have the ability to support any candidate they wish.

Questions to Consider

How does the party nomination process mesh with the constitutional principles of consent of the governed of representative government?

In your opinion, should the party nomination system fall outside the spectrum of the constitution?

Who determines the rules for the nomination process?

Who determines the rules for a primary or caucus?

Which type of election contest described above do you see as the best? Explain why.

How does the party nomination system compare to the Electoral College? How do they differ?

Resources

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Overview

Between now and June 2020, all fifty states and territories will be holding primary elections and caucuses in order to select Democratic and Republican presidential candidates. The elections and caucuses will choose delegates that will vote for the eventual Democratic presidential nominee and the Republican presidential nominee. Delegates are individuals that are chosen to represent their state at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) and Republican National Convention (RNC). They are typically party activists, local political leaders, or early supporters of a particular presidential candidate.

The Democratic Party

The 2020 Democratic National Convention will be held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin from July 13 to July 16. At the convention, 4,750 delegates will vote to choose the Democratic presidential candidate. Of the total delegates, there are 3,979 pledged delegates that are elected or chosen at the state or local level. The pledged delegates are picked with the expectation that they will support a specific candidate at the convention. The number of delegates in each state typically depends on certain factors such as how big the state is, how Democratic it leans, when the primary is held, and its electoral vote. Overall, a candidate must win at least 15% of the votes cast in the primary or caucuses in order to receive any delegates. In 2020, superdelegates are a group of 771 delegates that are not required to pledge their support to a specific presidential candidate. The superdelegates are typically members of the DNC, Democratic members of Congress, Democratic governors, or distinguished party leaders, including former presidents and vice presidents.

To win the Democratic nomination at the convention in July, a presidential candidate must receive support from a majority of the pledged delegates (1,990 delegates) on the first ballot. If the convention is contested and goes to a second ballot, the candidate must receive majority support from all delegates (2,375 delegates).

A brokered convention is a presidential nominating convention that fails to nominate a candidate in the first round of delegate voting because no candidate gets the votes of more than half the delegates. If no candidate received at least 1,990 delegates in the first round of voting, the party’s nomination is decided through additional rounds of votes. In these additional rounds, the delegates are no longer bound to vote for the candidate they originally supported. Following a rule change by the DNC, Democratic party superdelegates can only vote on the second ballot on at the convention.

The Republican Party

The 2020 Republican Convention will be held August 24 – 27, 2020 in Charlotte, North Carolina. There will be 2,551 delegates at the convention: 2,441 pledged delegates and 110 unpledged delegates.

In order to win the Republican nomination, a candidate must receive votes from a majority of delegates (1,276 delegates). Republican delegates are typically selected through elections, by the Republican state committee, by state or congressional district conventions, or by holding a leadership position within the state’s Republican Party. There are four types of pledged delegates:

Pledged district delegates are elected at the congressional district level. There are three district-level delegates in each congressional district.
Pledged at-large delegates are distributed and elected statewide, with 10 at-large delegates in each state.
Pledged party leaders are leaders from each state and territory: national committeeman, national committeewoman, and state party chair.
Pledged bonus delegates are assigned to states whose electoral votes went to the Republican nominee in the last presidential election and states where Republicans hold the majority of the statewide offices.

At the convention, the pledged delegates vote on at least the first ballot based on the results of their respective state’s primary or caucus, while, the unpledged delegates are not bound by the results of state primaries and caucuses.

Conclusion

By the end of March 2020, roughly two-thirds of Republican and Democratic delegates will have been allocated. Overall, the RNC and DNC have different methods of determining the number of delegates per state, who the delegates are, and how the delegates vote for the eventual nominee.

Key Facts

Democratic National Convention: July 13 – 16, 2020
Republican National Convention: August 24 – 27, 2020
Democratic Delegates in 2020:
- 4,750 delegates: 3,979 pledged delegates and 711 superdelegates
Republican Delegates in 2020:
- 2, 551 delegates: 2,441 pledged delegates and 110 unpledged delegates
History of Brokered Conventions:
- 15 multi-ballot Democratic national conventions
- 9 multi-ballot Republican national conventions
- In 1924, the longest multi-ballot convention occurred when it took 103 ballots to nominate John Davis, who lost in the general election to Calvin Coolidge.