How delegates are chosen and what they really do at a national convention

You have probably never met the person who will formally nominate the next Republican candidate for President. That is the strange thing about it. Millions of people will argue about the nomination on television, in the diner and over the fence, and almost none of them will know that the legal act of nominating is performed by a few thousand private citizens called delegates, who are neighbours, county committee members, small-business owners, retired teachers and, now and then, the guy who ran the Lincoln Day dinner for fifteen years. They are the ones who stand up in the hall when the clerk calls the state's name.

When primary season ends, the voters have spoken. But their voices are translated into the delegates who go to the convention, and the translation rules are set by the party and by the states, in documents most people never read. So let me read them for you. This is an explainer in four parts: where delegates come from, what binds them, what they do once they get there, and how a regular citizen becomes one.

What a delegate is

A delegate is a person who holds a vote at the Republican National Convention. A delegate's main job, spelled out in the party's rules, is to vote on the presidential nomination. The delegates also adopt the party's rules and platform and take part in the nomination of the Vice Presidential candidate, whom in practice the presidential nominee selects.

An alternate is a person chosen to take the place of a delegate who cannot attend or serve. Alternates sit in the hall, often in the same delegation, and can be substituted in if a delegate is absent.

The number of delegates is not fixed by the Constitution, because the Constitution does not mention parties at all. It is set by the party's rules for each convention, and it is allocated among the states and territories according to a formula. The formula rewards states for things like having Republican officeholders and voting Republican in the previous presidential election, and it varies from cycle to cycle. The precise numbers are posted in the RNC's rules and on its website, and you should consult them rather than rely on a number you hear on the radio.

Where delegates come from

There is no single path. The state decides, working inside the party's national rules. The pieces fit together roughly like this.

1. At-large delegates. These represent the state as a whole. In many states they are allocated according to the statewide results of the primary or caucus, and then the individuals who fill the slots are chosen by the state committee, the state convention, or a nominating process set out in the state party's rules.
2. District delegates. Many states elect several delegates from each congressional district. In some of them the delegates themselves appear on the primary ballot, listed by name and often by the presidential candidate they support. In others, district delegates are chosen at a district convention or caucus after the primary.
3. Party leaders. Each state's delegation includes certain party officials by virtue of their office. Under the national rules, a state's three members of the RNC are among its delegates.

Here is a hypothetical pair of cases to show how different two states can be. In State A, the voters vote in a primary for a presidential candidate, the state allocates delegates to candidates based on the result, and then the candidate's campaign recommends names to fill the slots. In State B, voters choose between presidential candidates and also separately choose the people who will go to the convention. The delegates are real people, with names on the ballot, and the campaigns in State B must work to get their supporters elected as delegates. One is a vote for a candidate. The other is a vote for a candidate and a vote for a person.

An actual example of the second kind: in 2016, Pennsylvania voters elected their congressional district delegates directly, by name, and those district delegates were not bound to any candidate by the state's primary results. Pennsylvania had 18 congressional districts and three district delegates for each, so 18 times 3 is 54 delegates who were chosen by name and who carried no binding pledge from the primary. That is a large block, and it is the reason the state's campaigns spent time on persuading individual people to run and win.

Bound and unbound

This is the question that makes the difference.

A bound delegate is required by party or state rules to vote for a particular candidate on at least the first ballot, according to the result of a primary or caucus. An unbound delegate is free to vote for anyone. The rules also differ on how long the binding lasts. In most cases it covers the first ballot, and sometimes more. After that, delegates are released and can vote their preference.

A word on enforcement. Party rules say that bound delegates must vote as bound, and the convention itself decides disputes over credentials and challenges. The enforcement is therefore a matter of party rules and, in some states, state law. In practice the prime check on a delegate is that the campaign picked him or her, and the delegate is a loyal supporter, so most of the time a bound delegate votes the way he or she is bound without any enforcement at all.

A related distinction is how delegates are allocated:

• Winner-take-all: the candidate who wins the state, or a district, gets all of its delegates.
• Proportional: delegates are divided according to the candidates' shares of the vote, often with a minimum threshold below which a candidate gets nothing.
• Winner-take-most or hybrids: a candidate who clears a certain share, or who wins the state, gets a bonus.

The national party has set rules about this in various cycles. It has often required early contests to be proportional and allowed later ones to be winner-take-all, in order to keep the race from ending before most states have voted. The rules are written for each cycle by the national committee and the convention, so check the current ones.

Worked example, labelled as a hypothetical. Say a state has 40 delegates, three candidates and a proportional system. The results are 50, 30 and 20 percent. Forty times 0.50 is 20 delegates, forty times 0.30 is 12, and forty times 0.20 is 8. That adds up to 40. If the same state were winner-take-all, the first candidate would get all 40, and the other two would get none. The same votes, a different convention floor.

What happens at the convention

Most people imagine the convention is a four-day party with a vote at the end. It is a party, and there is a vote. But the real work is done in the first days, in committees.

1. Credentials. The credentials committee decides which delegates are seated. If two groups from a state both claim to be the legitimate delegation, this committee, and ultimately the full convention, decides.
2. Rules. The convention adopts its own rules, and those rules are drafted by the rules committee, made up of delegates from the states and territories. The rules govern how a candidate is placed in nomination, how the roll call is run, how delegates are bound and released, and what the party's rules for the next cycle will be. The convention is the highest authority in the party, as explained in The Republican Party org chart, from your precinct to the RNC. It can rewrite the rules.
3. Platform. The platform committee, composed of delegates from each state and territory, drafts the party's platform, and the full convention adopts it. For what a platform does and does not bind, read What a Party Platform Is, Who Writes It and What It Actually Binds.
4. The roll call. The states are called in order, and each delegation announces its votes. In the modern era the result is nearly always known beforehand, so the roll call has become ceremony. The state chairman gets to say a few words about the state's beauty and its barbecue.
5. The acceptance. The nominee speaks, accepts and sets the theme for the fall.

If this sounds like a show, it is partly a show. But note that the conventions are called by the party and the party's rules, with the delegates in charge, and that rules matter most on the rare occasions when the result is not already known.

When a convention mattered: 1976

The best modern example is the Republican National Convention in Kansas City in August 1976. President Gerald Ford had succeeded Richard Nixon in 1974 and was seeking the nomination in his own right. Ronald Reagan, the former Governor of California, challenged him. The primaries did not settle it, and both men arrived in Kansas City with a real chance.

Three things happened there that every delegate should know.

1. The rules fight. Reagan's forces proposed a rule that would have required presidential candidates to name their running mate before the balloting. It was defeated. The vote on it was seen as a test of who had the delegates.
2. The running mate gambit. Reagan had already announced, before the convention, that if nominated he would choose Senator Richard Schweiker of Pennsylvania, a moderate, a departure from what many of his supporters expected. It was meant to attract wavering delegates.
3. The roll call. Ford won the nomination on the first ballot with 1,187 votes to Reagan's 1,070. A majority required 1,130. Ford's margin over Reagan was 117 votes (1,187 minus 1,070). Ford then picked Senator Bob Dole of Kansas as his running mate.

Ford lost the general election that November. Reagan won the nomination in 1980. The 1976 convention remains the closest the party has come in modern times to a nomination decided inside the hall, and the full story is in The 1976 Kansas City Convention and the Last Real Fight Over the Nomination. The lesson for delegates is that a close contest turns on small things: which delegates are bound, which are persuadable, and who knows the rules.

The objection: "Delegates are insiders who thwart the voters"

Let me state the best form of the critique. In a close race, delegates may ignore the primary results, make backroom deals and override what voters wanted. The convention is a relic that gives party insiders a veto over the voters. The cure is binding every delegate to the primary result and abolishing the discretion that remains.

There is a real point in this. Voters who spent their Tuesday casting a ballot are entitled to expect that it counts, and rules that allow delegates to swap sides after the first ballot or that leave a big block unbound can shake trust. That is one reason the party has tightened binding over time.

But I'd offer two answers. First, the alternative is a system in which the primary vote determines the winner mathematically, and where a divided result produces no answer at all. A convention exists to settle a nomination when the voters have not. Delegates who must choose after several ballots are the ones answering the question the voters left open. Second, the delegates are not strangers. They are chosen through the same ladder of precinct, county and state meetings that picks the party's committees. If you do not like who they are, the remedy is to be one. For the history of how the party moved from conventions to primaries, see How Republicans Pick Nominees from Party Bosses to Primaries and Caucuses.

How an ordinary citizen becomes a delegate or alternate

The details differ by state, but a typical path has these steps.

1. Find your state party's delegate selection rules. Search the state party's website for "delegate" or "national convention," and read the plan. The national party requires each state to adopt rules and make them public.
2. Learn which route applies. Is the position on the primary ballot with a filing deadline? Is it filled at a district or state convention? Is it chosen by the state committee? Each has a deadline.
3. Get involved at the precinct and county level first. In convention states, the delegates to the district and state conventions come out of the county conventions, which come out of the precinct meetings. See how to become a precinct committeeman and take over your county party.
4. Decide which candidate you support, or whether you will run unpledged. In some states a delegate candidate must declare a preference or pledge. In others, the campaign's slate is used.
5. File or declare on time, and read the pledge or affidavit carefully.
6. Prepare for the cost. Delegates normally pay their own travel, lodging and convention costs. Some state parties help, many do not. Count the cost before you run.

An alternate is a smaller commitment, and a good way in. It is also how many delegates get started: serve once as an alternate, show up, learn the rules, and the next cycle you are better placed to be a delegate.

The bottom line

• A delegate is a citizen who casts a vote at the national convention, and the road there runs through precinct and county meetings, district contests and state conventions.
• Whether delegates are bound or unbound, and how they are allocated, is set by party and state rules for each cycle. Look up the rules for the contest you care about, and do not rely on a number you heard on the radio.
• The convention is the party's highest authority. It writes the rules and the platform, and in a close race those rules can decide the nomination, as they nearly did in 1976.
• If you want a voice in who the party nominates, start with your state party's delegate rules and the dates in them. An alternate's seat is a fine place to begin.
• The cheapest way to prepare is to learn the rules before you need them, and to read the platform before you vote on it. The elections page is a good place to track the calendar.