Republican delegate rules, 2024
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Date: November 5, 2024  |
2024 • 2020 • 2016 |
The 2024 Republican presidential nominee will be selected by delegates to the Republican National Convention, which will be held July 15-18, 2024, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The national nominating convention is the formal ceremony during which the party officially selects its nominee and adopts a party platform. The delegates are individuals chosen to represent their state or territory at the convention.
In 2024, there are an estimated 2,469 delegates: 2,365 pledged delegates and 104 unpledged delegates.
To win the Republican nomination, a presidential candidate must receive support from a majority of delegates—an estimated 1,235 delegates.[1]
Click here to learn more about 2020 Republican Party delegate rules by state.
This page provides an overview of the types of delegates to the convention, their selection and allocation, and a summary of delegates by state. Election dates, delegate counts, and delegate allocation rules are subject to change as each state finalizes its delegation selection process.
Delegate selection and allocation
Delegates are individuals chosen to represent their state at their party's national nominating convention. Republican delegates may be selected in a variety of ways, including through elections, by the Republican state committee, by state or congressional district conventions, or by virtue of a leadership position within the state's Republican Party.
There are three primary methods used to allocate Republican delegates (which means to bind them to vote for a certain candidate on at least the first ballot at the national convention):[2]
- Proportional: States using this method either allocate all their delegates proportionally to the candidates based on the statewide vote or they allocate at-large delegates proportionally based on the statewide vote and congressional district delegates proportionally based on the vote at the district level.
- Winner-take-all: States using this method allocate all their delegates to the candidate who receives a plurality of votes in the primary election or caucus.
- Hybrid: The Republican National Committee describes hybrid allocation methods as those that combine other methods. Some states award at-large delegates on a winner-take-all basis according to the statewide vote and congressional district delegates on a winner-take-all basis according to the vote within the districts. Some states directly elect delegates, who are usually bound to a particular candidate on the ballot.
Most Republican delegate allocation rules are set by state parties and state laws, though the Republican National Committee sets some rules that states must comply with. Delegates bound by primaries or caucuses held before March 15 must be allocated proportionally to candidates, either based on the statewide vote or the vote at the congressional district level. States using proportional allocation are, however, allowed to establish a minimum threshold, up to 20 percent, below which a candidate does not qualify for any proportionally allocated delegates. States may also set a threshold of at least 50 percent above which a candidate receives all delegates.[3]
The map below shows a summary of Republican delegate allocation methods by state in the 2020 presidential election.[1]
Pledged vs. unpledged delegates
Pledged delegates
Pledged delegates, also called bound delegates, are bound to vote on at least the first ballot at the national convention based on the results of their states' primary or caucus. The Rules of the Republican Party, as passed in July 2020 and amended in July 2022, state the following:
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Any statewide presidential preference vote that permits a choice among candidates for the Republican nomination for President of the United States in a primary, caucuses, or a state convention must be used to allocate and bind the state’s delegation to the national convention in either a proportional or winner-take-all manner for at least one round of balloting, except for delegates and alternate delegates who appear on a ballot in a statewide election and are elected directly by primary voters or delegates bound to a candidate that withdraws from the presidential race. [4] |
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| —Rule 16(a)(1), The Rules of the Republican Party[5] | ||
There are four distinct types of pledged Republican delegates:[6]
Pledged district delegates are distributed and elected at the congressional district level. The Republican Party assigns three district-level delegates to each congressional district.
Pledged at-large delegates are distributed and elected statewide. The Republican Party assigns 10 at-large delegates to each state.
Pledged party leaders: The Republican Party gives delegate status to three party leaders from each state and territory—its national committeeman, national committeewoman, and state party chair.
Pledged bonus delegates: Bonus delegates are assigned to states whose electoral votes went to the Republican nominee in the last presidential election and to states in which Republicans hold: the governorship, at least half of U.S. representative seats, a majority of a state legislative chamber, a majority of seats in both legislative chambers, or a U.S. Senate seat (elected within the past six years).
Unpledged delegates
Unpledged delegates, also called unbound delegates, are not bound by the results of state primaries or caucuses. Some state and territory party rules dictate that some or all of their Republican delegates are unbound.[7] The following was an estimate of unbound Republican delegates as of March 2023.
- Pennsylvania's 51 district-level delegates are not bound to support any particular presidential candidate.
- All 29 of North Dakota's Republican delegates are unpledged.
- Wyoming's three party leader delegates are unpledged.
- All 18 delegates from American Samoa (9) and Guam (9) are unpledged. The Virgin Islands' three party leader delegates are also unpledged.
Overview of pledged and unpledged Republican delegates by state
The map below compares delegate counts by state. A lighter shade indicates a smaller number of delegates while a darker shade indicates a larger number.
The following table lists the election type, delegate type breakdown, and total delegates for each state and territory.[8] Election types and delegate counts are subject to change as each state and territory finalizes its delegation selection process.
Percentage of Republican pledged delegates awarded over time
The following chart and table show the percentage of pledged delegates awarded over time following the primary or caucus of each state and territory. The percentage reflects the percentage of pledged delegates awarded by each date. States are still in the process of planning their primary nominating events, and this section will be updated as primary dates become available.
Argument that delegates are unbound
Former RNC committee member Curly Haugland and public policy consultant Sean Parnell argued in their 2016 book, Unbound: The Conscience of a Republican Delegate, that delegates are free to vote their conscience and are not bound by state or party laws to vote according to the results of party primaries or caucuses.[9] Click on the following links to learn more about arguments for and against this interpretation of delegate binding:
- Green Papers: "The Ties that Bind–or Do They?" (March 19, 2016)
- The Hill: "All Delegates Are Unbound" (July 11, 2016)
- Politico: "The One Man Who Could Stop Donald Trump" (May 9, 2016)
Historical comparison of delegate counts, 2016-2024
The table below displays the number of Republican delegates each state had in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, alongside an estimate of how many delegates each state will have in the 2024 presidential election.
Democratic delegate rules
- See also: Democratic delegate rules, 2024
The 2024 Democratic presidential nominee will be selected by delegates to the 2024 Democratic National Convention. The national nominating convention is the formal ceremony during which the party officially selects its nominee. The delegates are individuals chosen to represent their state, territory, or Democrats Abroad at the convention.
In 2024, there are an estimated 4,532 delegates: 3,788 pledged delegates and 744 automatic delegates—more commonly known as superdelegates.[10]
To win the Democratic nomination, a presidential candidate needs to receive support from a majority of the pledged delegates on the first ballot: an estimated 1,895 pledged delegates.[11][10]
If the convention is contested and goes to a second ballot or more, automatic delegates—commonly referred to as superdelegates—are able to vote and a candidate must receive majority support from all delegates—2,258 votes. Previously, superdelegates were able to vote on the first ballot. This rule changed after the 2016 presidential election, when the Unity Reform Commission proposed several ways to reduce the number and power of superdelegates.[12][13] To learn more about the 2020 Democratic National Convention, click here.
See also
- Presidential candidates, 2024
- Republican presidential nomination, 2024
- Democratic presidential nomination, 2024
- Republican delegate rules, 2020
- Republican delegate rules by state, 2016
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 The Green Papers, "Presidential Primaries 2024 Republican Pledged and Unpledged Delegate Summary," accessed March 27, 2023
- ↑ Republican National Committee, "2016 Presidential Nominating Process," accessed May 15, 2019
- ↑ Republican National Committee, "The Rules of the Republican Party," accessed March 27, 2023
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Republican National Committee, "The Rules of the Republican Party," amended April 14, 2022
- ↑ Congressional Research Service, "The Presidential Nominating Process and the National Party Conventions, 2016: Frequently Asked Questions," December 30, 2015
- ↑ The Green Papers, "The Green Papers Presidential Primaries 2020 Republican Pledged and Unpledged Delegate Summary," accessed May 9, 2019
- ↑ The Green Papers, "The Green Papers Presidential Primaries 2024 Republican Delegate Vote Allocation," accessed March 27, 2023
- ↑ The Hill, "All delegates are unbound," July 11, 2016
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Green Papers, "Presidential Primaries 2024 Democratic Delegate Vote Allocation," accessed March 28, 2023
- ↑ The Democratic National Committee calculates a majority as 50% plus one delegate.
- ↑ Politico, "Kemp poised to spurn Trump on Georgia Senate pick," December 2, 2019
- ↑ The New York Times, "How to Win the Democratic Nomination, and Why It Could Get Complicated," February 22, 2020
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