Delegate facts for kids
A delegate is someone who is chosen or elected to speak or act for a group of people. Think of them as representatives. For example, in big organizations like the United Nations, each country sends delegates to represent their nation's interests.
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Delegates in US Politics
Before a big election in the United States, political parties need to choose their candidates. This process starts with delegates.
Each major political party in every state selects people called delegates. These delegates then go to a special meeting called a national convention. At this convention, they vote to pick the party's presidential candidate.
How Delegates Are Chosen
There are two main ways delegates are chosen:
- A caucus is a meeting where party members discuss and then vote for their preferred candidate.
- A Primary election is like a regular election where people go to polling places and cast secret ballots for their chosen candidate.
Each state and political party can have different rules for how delegates are selected.
Republican and Democratic Delegates
The Republican Party lets each state decide how to pick its delegates. This means the rules might be different from one state to another.
The Democratic Party uses a proportional method. This means that if a candidate gets a certain percentage of votes in a caucus or primary, they will get a similar percentage of delegates from that state. For example, if Candidate "X" gets 40 percent of the votes, they might get 40 percent of the delegates.
Becoming a Presidential Nominee
A candidate becomes their party's presidential nominee after they win a majority of the votes from the delegates at the national convention.
In the past, delegates sometimes had to vote many times to pick a candidate. Delegates could even change their votes between rounds. However, in recent elections, it's usually clear who the main candidate is even before the first vote. This means the nominee is often known before the convention even begins.
