Current:Home > Contact-usWhy AP isn’t using ‘presumptive nominee’ to describe Trump or Biden-DB Wealth Institute B2 Expert Reviews
Why AP isn’t using ‘presumptive nominee’ to describe Trump or Biden
View Date:2024-12-23 20:40:47
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Donald Trump and Democrat 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.
veryGood! (954)
Related
- What does the top five look like and other questions facing the College Football Playoff committee
- Trump the Environmentalist?
- Why your bad boss will probably lose the remote-work wars
- Today’s Climate: June 11, 2010
- Judge moves to slash $38 million verdict in New Hampshire youth center abuse case
- Why your bad boss will probably lose the remote-work wars
- Every Royally Adorable Moment of Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis at the Coronation
- Why Queen Camilla Officially Dropped Her Consort Title After King Charles III’s Coronation
- Monument erected in Tulsa for victims of 1921 Race Massacre
- Georgia's rural Black voters helped propel Democrats before. Will they do it again?
Ranking
- MLS playoff teams set: Road to MLS Cup continues with conference semifinals
- Coal’s Decline Sends Arch into Bankruptcy and Activists Aiming for Its Leases
- Why Ryan Reynolds is telling people to get a colonoscopy
- Today’s Climate: June 17, 2010
- Pennsylvania House Republicans pick new floor leader after failing to regain majority
- Today’s Climate: June 16, 2010
- They were turned away from urgent care. The reason? Their car insurance
- Today’s Climate: June 7, 2010
Recommendation
-
Social media star squirrel euthanized after being taken from home tests negative for rabies
-
The clock is ticking for U.N. goals to end poverty — and it doesn't look promising
-
The economics behind 'quiet quitting' — and what we should call it instead
-
How to Watch King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla’s Coronation on TV and Online
-
Police identify 7-year-old child killed in North Carolina weekend shooting
-
Prince Louis Yawning at King Charles III's Coronation Is a Total Mood
-
What happened on D-Day? A timeline of June 6, 1944
-
Can therapy solve racism?