EXPLANATION
At party conventions, political parties in the USA officially choose their presidential candidates. But how do they work?
In the run-up to the presidential election, primaries and party caucuses are held in each US state, where voters can select their preferred candidates from the major parties.
But these votes at the state level ultimately culminate in a single event: the party congress.
At these conventions, the Democratic and Republican parties generally confirm their respective presidential candidates based on the results of the primaries and caucuses.
Last month, Donald Trump was officially named the Republican nominee at a convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Now it’s the Democrats’ turn, as the party meets in Chicago, Illinois, next week to hold its convention.
The meeting ends on August 22, and then Kamala Harris will take the stage to unite Democrats behind her campaign for the White House.
So how do national conventions work?
Elaine Kamarck, senior fellow for governance studies at the Brookings Institution, called the conventions “the final word” in the presidential nomination process.
“The legal authority for choosing the party’s candidate rests with the party convention, not with the primary voters.”
Each party congress includes a number of procedural votes, including on the rules of the event and the party program, but the most important event is undoubtedly the nomination of the president.
The nomination is confirmed in a so-called “roll call,” in which each state announces at the party convention how many delegates it will award to the nominees.
Delegates are generally chosen to vote for a candidate according to their state’s primary or caucus results. However, a certain number of delegates are “uncommitted,” meaning they can cast their vote however they want.
If a candidate receives a majority of delegate votes, he or she is nominated.
In some election years, including 2024, this process is considered largely ceremonial, since the likely candidates are known before the party conventions are held.
Harris was confirmed as the Democratic nominee after winning a virtual vote, but a “ceremonial” vote will still take place at the party’s convention in Chicago.
To put it another way: The party conventions involve a lot of formality and ceremony, but they usually represent the final step in the presidential nomination process of the Republican and Democratic parties.
In fact, the party conventions are an opportunity for Republicans and Democrats to agree on their respective candidates and generate enthusiasm for each other in the run-up to the election.
In the past, presidential candidates have also announced their desire for the vice presidential post at party conventions, which has caused additional excitement.
However, party conventions have not always played such an important role in presidential elections.
In the past, US presidential candidates were chosen by their respective parties behind closed doors.
This changed in the 1830s, when both Republicans and Democrats began holding party conventions to decide who would run for president.
These early conventions were different from those we know today: For many of the first conventions, there were no primaries or caucuses in the states, meaning that candidates were chosen by key members of each party rather than by popular vote.
