Primary Election Presidential Primaries in the United States
Presidential Primaries
Introduction to Primary Election Presidential Primaries
A presidential primary is used to select a party’s nominee for president of the United States. Presidential primaries differ from direct primaries. Presidential primaries are a type of indirect primary because each party’s nominee is chosen by delegates at the party’s national convention, not by popular vote. In most state presidential primaries, voters vote for the person they wish the party to nominate for president, and the election results tell the state’s delegates which candidate they are to vote for at the national convention. Because the delegates in most states are bound by the results of the primary, voters have the most important role in the nomination of presidential candidates. In another type of presidential primary, voters directly elect delegates to the national convention. The delegates are listed on the ballot as pledged to a candidate or uncommitted. Whatever system is used, national conventions today serve mainly to ratify the results of presidential primaries and caucuses.
States use various ways of allocating delegates to presidential candidates. Most states allocate delegates to candidates in proportion to the number of votes cast for the candidates in the primary. In this system, known as proportional representation, a candidate who receives 25 percent of the vote in a state primary receives 25 percent of the state’s delegates. Rules set by each political party govern the minimum percentage of votes a candidate must receive to win delegates. Other states use the winner-take-all method, in which the candidate who wins the most votes receives all of that state’s delegates.
In the United States, presidential primary elections typically take place over a period of four to six months. Each state determines the date of its own primary. The presidential primary season traditionally begins with the New Hampshire primary in February or early March and culminates with national party conventions in July or August. However, candidates’ campaigns begin as much as a year before the first primary.
Except when popular incumbent presidents seek renomination by their own party, presidential primary campaigns are hotly contested, typically attracting from 6 to 12 major candidates in each party. The earliest primaries are the most important, since they provide the first indications of a candidate’s popular support and chance of nomination. Candidates who win early primaries attract a great deal of media coverage, which usually portrays them favorably as a “winner.” They are therefore able to raise more money, recruit more supporters to work for them, and increase their standing in public opinion polls. All of these factors increase the chances that the victorious candidate will attract more voters in later primaries, both to favor their candidacy and to turn out to vote. Thus, candidates who win early primaries gain political momentum, and candidates who fare poorly often drop out of the race. Even so, as the campaign moves from state to state, leading candidates may lose and new candidates may emerge.
Many states have sought to play a greater role in the nomination process by moving their primary date earlier in the year, when candidate fortunes swing most dramatically. Many states have also aligned their primaries with those of nearby states, creating so-called regional primaries. For example, in 1988 16 states, mostly from the South, held their primaries on Tuesday, March 8, nicknamed “Super Tuesday.” The growth of regional primaries unexpectedly made campaigns more costly to run, because they required more extensive, and therefore more expensive, advertising on television and in other mass media. Regional primaries also made it harder for the little-known outsider, as Jimmy Carter was in 1976, to win the presidential nomination-although not as hard as in the days before presidential primaries.” (1)
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