Parties Primary and Caucuses
The party primaries and
caucuses are ways party members get to vote for the candidate they would like to
see representing their party in the upcoming general election.
More specifically, primaries and caucuses are means
of selecting
delegates (representatives of party members in each state) to
send to the party's
national convention. Candidates are chosen at local
caucuses and primaries, narrowed at district conventions and finalized at state
conventions. Delegates from each state go to national conventions, where they
announce the party's official candidate
At the
Democratic convention, the number of state delegates is proportional to the
number of votes received in the state primary or caucus. The Republican Party
uses a winner-take-all system in which the delegate or candidate with the most
votes in a state's primary or caucus wins the right to be represented by all of
the party's delegates at the national convention. The total number of delegates
each party can send to the national convention is again dictated by party rules.
Usually the party determines the number of delegates through a formula factoring
in state population, the number of elected officials in office, and that state's
past support of party
candidates
Party primaries and caucuses
have elements that are public (the state often pays to run them), and elements
that are private (political parties are not government entities, they are
private associations). Private associations have a First Amendment right to
exclude those who disagree with them, and to structure their internal affairs as
they see fit. Presidential primaries straddle this public-private divide because
presidential nominations are ultimately made at party-run conventions.