Republican presidential nomination and delegates, explained

Winning individual primaries and caucuses is just one step in the long path to winning a party’s presidential nomination.

Both parties hold conventions in the summer where delegates technically select the nominee. The process and rules are different for each party, but the primaries are about winning enough delegates to secure the nomination.

There are different kinds of nominating contests and different kinds of delegates in a calendar that stretches from January to June, so keeping track of the delegate math can get complicated.

Performing well in primaries and caucuses equals delegates, and the larger goal is amassing the magic number of delegates to secure a nomination before delegate voting at the party convention.

Whoever wins the GOP nomination needs to win at least 1,215 out of 2,429 delegates awarded as part of the primary process.

In years without an incumbent, like Republicans are experiencing in 2024, the winner frequently does not hit the magic number until May or even June. In 2016, in his first of three White House runs, Donald Trump hit the magic number on May 26.

But if Trump’s lead in polls holds up during early primaries, he could wrap things up much earlier.

During most of the early primaries and caucuses, states award delegates proportionally. That means that each candidate gets a number of delegates roughly equivalent to the percentage of the vote he or she has won. Delegates can be awarded based on results either statewide or in individual congressional districts.

For example, in 2016, Sen. Ted Cruz won the Iowa caucuses, but with less than 30% of the vote, he only got eight delegates. Trump and Sen. Marco Rubio both got seven delegates in Iowa that year.

Sometimes, there’s a certain amount of support a candidate must register in order to qualify for delegates and many of these states have special rules that allow a candidate who wins the lion’s share of the vote (often 50%) to take all of the state’s delegates.

Things change after March 15. That’s when states have the option to award all of their delegates to whoever gets the most votes in the state’s contest.

The introduction of winner-take-all rules makes it harder for any remaining candidates to accumulate delegates against the race leader.

While you’re bound to hear a lot about Iowa and New Hampshire before the caucuses and primaries get started — and those contests can be critical for giving candidates early momentum — those two states represent a small number of delegates.

It’s not until Super Tuesday on March 5, seven weeks after the first Americans pick a candidate in Iowa, that a consequentially large number of Republican delegates is at stake.

In 13 primaries and three caucuses, 874 delegates, 36% of the Republican total, will be up for grabs, including in California, the state with the most Republican delegates. But we still aren’t even halfway through the primaries.

Below, explore how many delegates are at stake in every contest.

In addition to delegates who are bound to a candidate based on the results of the nominating contests, there is also a relatively small number of unbound delegates (142 total) from Pennsylvania, Montana, New Mexico, South Dakota and Guam. These delegates are not technically required to support the candidate who won their state at the outset of the convention and are free to support the candidate of their choice.

The delegate math gets even more complicated if no candidate reaches the magic number during the nominating contests, although this hasn’t happened for decades. If there is no clear winner during the primaries, delegates could engage in rounds of voting at the convention to select the party’s presidential candidate.

While President Joe Biden has not faced much opposition in the Democratic primary, he still needs to win at least 1,969 of 3,936 pledged delegates awarded as part of the primary process. If he can’t get a majority, he’d need help from about 740 automatic delegates, made up of party leaders, elected officials and other Democratic bigwigs.

Note: Democrats aren’t even technically starting to count delegates until their South Carolina primary in early February. Republicans are voting in the South Carolina primary in late February.

To see live election results, visit our 2024 election guide.