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Elections
- Voting in America: A Right with Rules – Lesson
- Winning the Presidency Isn’t as Easy as it Might Sound – Lesson
- Winning the Presidency Isn’t as Easy as it Might Sound – Quiz
- The Primary and Caucus Process – Lesson
- The Primary and Caucus Process – Quiz
- Super Tuesday: The Biggest Day in Primary Voting – Lesson
- Super Tuesday: The Biggest Day in Primary Voting – Quiz
- Delegates and Superdelegates – What are They? – Lesson
- Delegates and Superdelegates – What are They? – Quiz
- The Importance of Political National Conventions – Lesson
- The Importance of Political National Conventions – Quiz
- Political Spending: Does More Money Mean More Votes? – Lesson
- Political Spending: Does More Money Mean More Votes? – Quiz
- Who Donates to Politicians? – Lesson
- Who Donates to Politicians? – Quiz
- How Economics Has Shaped Elections – Lesson
- Presidential Debates: What Is the Moderator’s Job? – Lesson
- How Does the Electoral College Work? – Lesson
- How Does the Electoral College Work? – Quiz
- Why the Electoral College is Important – Lesson – VIDEO
- Why the Electoral College is Important – Quiz
- Campaign Money: Where Does It Go After Election Day? – Lesson
- Campaign Money: Where Does It Go After Election Day? – Quiz
- ‘Shaping’ the Nation: Is It Redistricting or Gerrymandering? – Lesson
- ‘Shaping’ the Nation: Is It Redistricting or Gerrymandering? – Quiz
- It’s Primary Season in the United States – Lesson
- It’s Primary Season in the United States – Quiz
- Which Way the Wind Blows: Straw Polls and US Elections – Lesson
- Which Way the Wind Blows: Straw Polls and US Elections – Quiz
Delegates and Superdelegates – What are They? – Lesson
Delegates play a key role in nominating a presidential candidate.
The road to becoming a nominee for president of the United States involves a small group of people known as delegates and superdelegates. The process of selecting delegates occurs in every state for the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. This takes place during primaries and caucuses, which are events for choosing a candidate to compete in a presidential election. Delegates officially choose the party’s nominee for president.
Made up of local party leaders and activists, delegates pledge to support the winner of their state contest at national conventions, which are held by both political parties during the summer before Election Day.
A delegate system is intended to reflect the will of the people in each state and ensure that the right candidate is selected as the presidential nominee.
How Presidential Nominees are Chosen
Although the act of selecting delegates is similar for each party, the Democrats and Republicans apply their own methods to determine how delegates are pledged to cast a ballot at the convention.
The Democrats assign delegates to each potential nominee based on how much support the candidates receive in a state caucus or primary vote. For example, a state with 20 delegates can divvy up its delegates according to how many votes each candidate receives. In a three-way race, if candidate “A” received 70% of all caucus and primary votes, while candidate “B” got 20%, and candidate “C” obtained 10%, “A” would get 14 delegates, “B,” would get 4 delegates and “C” would be assigned two delegates.
Republicans give each state the right to award its delegates either by this method, or winner-take-all.
These delegates then cast their votes at the convention to select their party’s nominee.
Superdelegates
In theory, a superdelegate can change the results of a nominating process. A superdelegate is pulled from a position of stature in the party, and may be major elected officials or senior party members.
The Democrats assign these superdelegates to ensure there is a safety net if they deem the chosen candidate unsuitable to be the nominee. Since the party lost the 2016 election, it has revamped the process. This involved stripping some power from the superdelegates and only allowing the delegates elected in primaries and caucuses to choose the nominees. Superdelegates are now used in the event of a tie between candidates.
The Republican Party assigns three people from the Republican National Committee for every state. Republican superdelegates are bound to support the will of voters in their states.
Delegates then attend their national conventions and pledge their support for the candidates. At the end of this process, a candidate is chosen from each party to run in the next presidential election.