Republican delegate rules, 2024

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Date: November 5, 2024
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Delegates to the Republican National Convention selected former President Donald Trump as the 2024 Republican presidential nominee on July 15, 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 were an estimated 2,429 delegates: 2,325 pledged delegates and 104 unpledged delegates.

To win the Republican nomination, a presidential candidate had to receive support from a majority of delegates—an estimated 1,215 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.

Presidential nomination roll call

See also: Republican National Convention, 2024

The following table contains the number of delegates each candidate received during the presidential nomination roll call at the Republican National Convention on July 15, 2024. It was updated live during the event.

Republican presidential nomination roll call, 2024
State Trump Abstentions Total votes
Totals 2,388 41 2,429
Alabama 50 50
Alaska 29 29
American Samoa 9 9
Arizona 43 43
Arkansas 40 40
California 169 169
Colorado 37 37
Connecticut 28 28
Delaware 16 16
District of Columbia 19 19
Florida 125 125
Georgia 59 59
Guam 9 9
Hawaii 19 19
Idaho 32 32
Illinois 64 64
Indiana 58 58
Iowa 40 40
Kansas 39 39
Kentucky 46 46
Louisiana 47 47
Maine 20 20
Maryland 37 37
Massachusetts 40 40
Michigan 51 4 55
Minnesota 39 39
Mississippi 40 40
Missouri 54 54
Montana 31 31
Nebraska 36 36
Nevada 26 26
New Hampshire 22 22
New Jersey 12 12
New Mexico 22 22
New York 91 91
North Carolina 62 12 74
North Dakota 29 29
Northern Mariana Islands 9 9
Ohio 79 79
Oklahoma 43 43
Oregon 31 31
Pennsylvania 67 67
Puerto Rico 23 23
Rhode Island 19 19
South Carolina 50 50
South Dakota 29 29
Tennessee 58 58
Texas 161 161
Utah 40 40
Vermont 17 17
U.S. Virgin Islands 4 4
Virginia 42 6 48
Washington 43 43
West Virginia 32 32
Wisconsin 41 41
Wyoming 29 29


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:

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]

—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 were not bound to support any particular presidential candidate.
  • All 29 of North Dakota's Republican delegates were unpledged.
  • Wyoming's three party leader delegates were unpledged.
  • All 18 delegates from American Samoa (9) and Guam (9) were unpledged. The Virgin Islands' three party leader delegates were also unpledged.


State laws and party rules on replacing a presidential nominee

See also: State laws and party rules on replacing a presidential nominee, 2024

Replacing a presumptive nominee before the national convention

The Democratic and Republican parties do not formally nominate candidates until delegates vote at the party's national convention. The Democratic National Convention took place from August 19-22, 2024, and the Republican National Convention took place from July 15-18, 2024.

A party's presumptive nominee, meaning the candidate who receives an estimated majority of delegates after state nominating events, could be replaced at the convention. Delegates could elect a candidate who they were not initially bound to at the time of their state's election. Both state law and party rules govern how a delegate must vote at the national convention, including whether a delegate remains bound to a withdrawn candidate and for how many rounds a delegate remains bound to a candidate.[8]

Both parties also have delegates who are not bound to a particular candidate at the convention. The Republican Party has a total of 104 unbound delegates, and the Democratic Party has a total of 739 unbound delegates. Democratic unbound delegates can only vote if a convention proceeds past the first round of voting.

Replacing a nominee between the national convention and the election

Rule 9 of The Rules of the Republican Party provides guidance on how to fill presidential and vice presidential vacancies.[9]

It says that the Republican National Committee (RNC) is authorized to select a new candidate by majority vote or by reconvening the national convention to fill the vacancy. In the former process, the three RNC members from each state—comprised of a state chair, a national committeeman, and a national committeewoman—would be able to cast the same number of votes as the entire delegation from that state to the convention.[9] Under Rule 9(c), if the three RNC members did not all support the same candidate, their votes would be proportionately distributed.[9] For example, each RNC member would cast 13 of Kansas' 39 delegate votes.

It is important to note, however, that states require political parties to submit names of presidential and vice presidential nominees and presidential electors before election day in order to certify them for the general election ballot. Deadlines vary by state and depend on the election calendar, including early voting, voting by mail, and absentee voting considerations.

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.[10] 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.

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.[11] Click on the following links to learn more about arguments for and against this interpretation of delegate binding:

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 had in the 2024 presidential election.

Democratic delegate rules

See also: Democratic delegate rules, 2024

Kamala Harris was selected by Democratic delegates as the Democratic presidential nominee on August 2, 2024. Harris received 4,563 delegate votes, which amounted to 99% of the delegates.[12][13] The national nominating convention is the formal ceremony during which the party typically selects its nominee. In 2024, the Democratic National Committee certified its presidential nominee during a virtual roll call held from August 1 and August 5.[14][15][16] The delegates are individuals chosen to represent their state, territory, or Democrats Abroad at the convention.

In 2024, there were an estimated 4,696 delegates: 3,949 pledged delegates and 747 automatic delegates—more commonly known as superdelegates.[17][18]

To win the Democratic nomination, a presidential candidate needed to receive support from a majority of the pledged delegates on the first ballot: an estimated 1,975 pledged delegates.[19][17][18]

If the convention was contested and went to a second ballot or more, automatic delegates—commonly referred to as superdelegates—would have been able to vote and a candidate would have needed to receive majority support from all delegates—2,349 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.[20][21] To learn more about the 2020 Democratic National Convention, click here.

See also

Republican delegate rules, 2016-2024
Use the dropdown menu below to navigate Ballotpedia's historical coverage of Republican delegate rules.
Additional reading




Footnotes

  1. 1.0 1.1 The Green Papers, "Presidential Primaries 2024 Republican Pledged and Unpledged Delegate Summary," accessed March 27, 2023
  2. Republican National Committee, "2016 Presidential Nominating Process," accessed May 15, 2019
  3. Republican National Committee, "The Rules of the Republican Party," accessed March 27, 2023
  4. Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
  5. Republican National Committee, "The Rules of the Republican Party," amended April 14, 2022
  6. Congressional Research Service, "The Presidential Nominating Process and the National Party Conventions, 2016: Frequently Asked Questions," December 30, 2015
  7. The Green Papers, "The Green Papers Presidential Primaries 2020 Republican Pledged and Unpledged Delegate Summary," accessed May 9, 2019
  8. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named politifact
  9. 9.0 9.1 9.2 Republican Party, "Rules of the Republican Party," April 14, 2022
  10. The Green Papers, "The Green Papers Presidential Primaries 2024 Republican Delegate Vote Allocation," accessed March 27, 2023
  11. The Hill, "All delegates are unbound," July 11, 2016
  12. USA Today, "Harris makes history as first Black woman, Asian American presidential nominee," August 2, 2024
  13. CBS News, "DNC virtual roll call vote ends with Kamala Harris receiving 99% of delegate votes. Here are the full results." August 6, 2024
  14. ABC News, "DNC to nominate Biden and Harris to bypass Ohio ballot issues," May 28, 2024
  15. The New York Times, "Democrats Set Aug. 1 for Harris Nomination Vote," July 24, 2024
  16. CBS News, "Kamala Harris closer to being nominee as DNC approves early virtual roll call vote," July 24, 2024
  17. 17.0 17.1 Green Papers, "Presidential Primaries 2024 Democratic Delegate Vote Allocation," accessed March 28, 2023
  18. 18.0 18.1 These figures assume New Hampshire will only receive ten pledged delegates.
  19. The Democratic National Committee calculates a majority as 50% plus one delegate.
  20. Politico, "Kemp poised to spurn Trump on Georgia Senate pick," December 2, 2019
  21. The New York Times, "How to Win the Democratic Nomination, and Why It Could Get Complicated," February 22, 2020