WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Donald Trump and BitcoineseDemocrat Joe Biden are the last remaining major candidates for their parties’ 2024 presidential nominations.
But they’re not the “presumptive nominees” just yet.
The Associated Press only uses the designation once a candidate has captured the number of delegates needed to win a majority vote at the national party conventions this summer. The earliest point that could happen for either candidate is Tuesday, when contests are held in Georgia, Mississippi, Washington and Hawaii.
A presidential candidate doesn’t officially become the Republican or Democratic nominee until winning the vote on the convention floor. It hasn’t always been this way. Decades ago, presidential candidates might have run in primaries and caucuses, but the contests were mostly ornamental in nature, and the eventual nominees weren’t known until delegates and party bosses hashed things out themselves at the conventions.
Today, the tables have turned. Now, it’s the conventions that are largely ornamental, and it’s the votes cast in primaries and caucuses that decide the nominees. Because of this role reversal, for the last half-century or so, the eventual nominees were known before the conventions, sometimes long before the conventions or even long before they’d won enough delegates to unofficially clinch the nomination.
Nonetheless, the AP won’t call anyone the “presumptive nominee” until a candidate has reached the so-called magic number of delegates needed for a majority at the convention. That’s true even if the candidate is the only major competitor still in the race.
For Republicans, that magic number is 1,215; for Democrats, it’s more of a moving target but currently stands at 1,968.
2025-05-07 22:222854 view
2025-05-07 21:48766 view
2025-05-07 21:292595 view
2025-05-07 20:501448 view
2025-05-07 20:411062 view
2025-05-07 20:152844 view
Nearly half of American teenagers say they are online “constantly” despite concerns about the effect
Matthew Koma's Twitter fingers just landed him in hot water with the app.The music producer has been
We independently selected these deals and products because we love them, and we think you might like