The presidential candidates in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 are selected by a process of primary election

Primary election

A primary election is an election in which party members or voters select candidates for a subsequent election. Primary elections are one means by which a political party nominates candidates for the next general election....

s. The major political parties do not directly select the candidate, instead the voters are requesting delegate

Delegate

A delegate is a person who speaks or acts on behalf of an organization at a meeting or conference between organizations of the same level A delegate is a person who speaks or acts on behalf of an organization (e.g., a government, a charity, an NGO, or a trade union) at a meeting or conference...

s to represent their vote when they attend the national party convention.

Democratic Party nomination process

The Democratic Party

Democratic Party (United States)

The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

 has a total of 4,049 delegates. Of those 3,253 are pledged based on state's primary (or caucus) results and 796 are Superdelegate

Superdelegate

"Superdelegate" is an informal term commonly used for some of the delegates to the Democratic National Convention, the presidential nominating convention of the United States Democratic Party....

s.

Republican Party nomination process

The size of delegations to the Republican National Convention

Republican National Convention

The Republican National Convention is the presidential nominating convention of the Republican Party of the United States. Convened by the Republican National Committee, the stated purpose of the convocation is to nominate an official candidate in an upcoming U.S...

 are determined by the national rules of the Republican Party

Republican Party (United States)

The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

, which as of 2004 indicate the following:

1. Ten delegates at large from each of the fifty states.
2. The national committeeman, the national committeewoman and the chairman of the state Republican Party of, each state and American Samoa
   American Samoa
   American Samoa is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast of the sovereign state of Samoa...
   
   , the District of Columbia, Guam
   Guam
   Guam is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States located in the western Pacific Ocean. It is one of five U.S. territories with an established civilian government. Guam is listed as one of 16 Non-Self-Governing Territories by the Special Committee on Decolonization of the United...
   
   , Northern Mariana Islands
   Northern Mariana Islands
   The Northern Mariana Islands, officially the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands , is a commonwealth in political union with the United States, occupying a strategic region of the western Pacific Ocean. It consists of 15 islands about three-quarters of the way from Hawaii to the Philippines...
   
   , Puerto Rico
   Puerto Rico
   Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
   
   , and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
3. Three district delegates for each member of the United States House of Representatives
   United States House of Representatives
   The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
   
    from each state, six from DC, and between six and twenty delegates from each of the territories.
4. From each state having cast at least a majority of its Electoral College votes for the Republican nominee in the preceding presidential election: four and one-half delegates at large plus a number of the delegates at large equal to 60 percent of the number of electoral votes of that state, rounding any fraction upwards
5. one additional delegate at large to each state
   1. which elected a Republican governor since the preceding presidential election
   2. whose Republican members of the United States House of Representatives
      United States House of Representatives
      The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
      
       represent a majority of that state's representatives
   3. where Republicans control any chamber of the state legislature
   4. where Republicans control all chambers of the state legislature
6. one additional delegate to each state per Republican it elected to the United States Senate
   United States Senate
   The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
   
    in the six-year period prior to January 1 of the year in which the next national convention is held.

The composition of the individual state

U.S. state

A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...

 and territory

Insular area

An insular area is a United States territory, that is neither a part of one of the fifty U.S. states nor the District of Columbia, the federal district of the United States...

 delegations is determined by the bylaws of their respective state and territory parties. Since 1972, almost all have appointed delegates by primary election results, although some, notably Iowa

Iowa

Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...

, use caucus

Caucus

A caucus is a meeting of supporters or members of a political party or movement, especially in the United States and Canada. As the use of the term has been expanded the exact definition has come to vary among political cultures.-Origin of the term:...

es, and others combine the primary with caucuses or with delegates elected at a state convention.