Delegate tracker: How a Democratic candidate secures the nomination

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The Democratic Party is in the process of nominating who will face President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election. For four months, voters in each state and United States territories take to the polls to determine who will be the Democratic Party’s nominee.

Hearst Television is tracking the number of delegates allocated to each candidate following a caucus and primary.

How does a candidate secure the nomination?

A Democratic candidate secures the nomination if they secure a majority of pledged delegates.

The number needed to win the nomination is 1,991 pledged delegates.

A candidate is awarded pledged delegates based on election results at caucuses and primaries held at states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories.

What happens if a candidate doesn’t reach 1,991 pledged delegates?

Pledged delegates are considered “first-ballot” voters for the Democratic Party nomination. This means the election results leading up to the Democratic National Convention are based on first-ballot results.

If no candidate has reached the 1,991 pledged delegate threshold, then the Democratic Party moves the nomination process to a second ballot. This second ballot allows superdelegates to vote.

Superdelegate? Who is a superdelegate?

You may remember the term “superdelegate” from the 2016 race for the Democratic nominee between Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and eventual Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

A superdelegate is a Democratic delegate who gets a ticket to the convention based on their role in the party. The breakdown of each superdelegate is as follows:

445 national committee members

280 members of Congress

24 governors

22 other party leaders (this includes former presidents and the DNC chairman)

The Democratic Party revised their rules to make superdelegates part of the second ballot initiative instead of having them play a role in the first ballot as in previous years.

A superdelegate can cast a vote in the event of a contested convention.

Click here for more on how the delegates are pledged.

How many delegates are needed to win a contested convention?

2,376.

That is the number of delegates needed for a Democratic candidate to win in the event of a contested convention.

This number includes pledged delegates and superdelegates.

If one Democratic candidate were to have 2,376 pledged delegates entering the convention, superdelegates can still cast a vote at a convention, but it wouldn’t make a difference because the candidate has enough delegates to win the convention outright already.