A United States presidential nominating convention is a political convention held every four years in the United States by most of the political parties who will be fielding nominees in the upcoming U.S. presidential election. The formal purpose of such a convention is to select the party's nominees for popular election as President and Vice President, as well as to adopt a statement of party principles and goals known as the party platform and adopt the rules for the party's activities, including the presidential nominating process for the next election cycle. Conventions remain an important part of the political process despite the nominees almost always being determined during the primary season, as they provide positive publicity for the nominee and party, which can then lead to a convention bounce.
The earliest public national presidential nominating Conventions have been traced back to the 1832 election, before which smaller groups of party leaders chose the nominee, arguably beginning with the 1796 election. Since 1972, most of the delegates have been selected in presidential primaries state by state. Other delegates to these conventions include political party members who are seated automatically, and are called "unpledged delegates" (also known as "superdelegates") because they can choose for themselves for which candidate they vote. The pledged delegates determined by the primaries generally allow the nominees to be decided before the convention opens, but if no single candidate has secured a majority of both pledged and unpledged delegates then a "brokered convention" can result.
In addition to the two major parties' quadrennial events: the Democratic and Republican National Convention, some minor parties also select their nominees by convention, including the Green Party, the Socialist Party USA, the Libertarian Party, the Constitution Party, and the Reform Party USA.
Logistics
Schedule The convention cycle begins with the Call to Convention. Usually issued about 18 months in advance, the Call is an invitation from the national party to the state and territory parties to convene to select a presidential nominee. It also sets out the number of delegates to be awarded to each state or territory, as well as the rules for the nomination process. Since 1964, the conventions are usually scheduled for four days [Monday-Thursday] of business, with the exception of the 1972 Republican and 2012 Democratic conventions, which were scheduled for three days each. (The 2008 and 2012 Republican conventions were essentially three days each due to weather issues, but each remained officially four days)
Since 1936 the party to which the incumbent president belongs has held its convention second. Between 1864 and 1952, the Democrats went second every year (except for 1888). In 1956, when Republican Dwight D. Eisenhower was the incumbent, the Democrats went first for the first time since 1888. So from 1936 to 1952, during administrations led by Democratic presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman, the Democrats had their convention after the Republicans, but it is unclear whether they went second because they held the White House or because they had almost always gone second. 1956 became the first year it was clear a party went second because they were the party of the incumbent, and that protocol has been followed ever since.
Major party conventions from the start through 1948 were mostly held in May and June, with a few exceptions. This might have been due to the lack of air conditioning – the last conventions held without air conditioning were in 1948. Since 1952, all major party conventions have been held in the months of July, August or (for the first time in 2004), finishing in early September. Between the middle of the 20th century and 2004, the two major party conventions were primarily scheduled about one month apart, often with the Summer Olympics in between so they did not have to compete for viewers. In 1996, both conventions were held in August after the Atlanta Olympics in July, and in 2000, both were held in July/August, preceding the Sydney Olympics in late September.
In 2008 and 2012, the Democratic and Republican conventions were scheduled for back-to-back weeks following the conclusion of the Beijing and London Olympics, respectively, resulting in the later conventions starting in September for the first time (Republicans in 2008, Democrats in 2012, with the Democratic start on September 4, 2012, the latest any major convention has started). One reason for these late conventions had to do with campaign finance laws, which allow the candidates to spend an unlimited amount of money before the convention, but forbid fundraising after the convention, for the parties to receive federal campaign funds. However, moving the conventions into early September led to conflicts with the NFL Kickoff game, which is usually held on the first Thursday after Labor Day in September. (The NFL accommodated the conventions and moved its game to an earlier start time in 2008, and to a rare Wednesday in 2012. Convention dates in 2004, and 2016 through 2024 did not conflict with the NFL schedule). Additionally, election laws in some states would likely prevent conventions from moving later into mid-September. Ohio election laws forced the Democrats to schedule a virtual nomination of Kamala Harris prior to the scheduled 2024 convention, to get around an August 7 ballot deadline. (Such deadlines have been waived in one way or another in previous election cycles). Early September conventions also competed for attention with Labor Day itself - a reason the Democrats shortened their 2012 convention to 3 days and started the next day, Tuesday.).
However, Barack Obama's choice not to receive federal campaign funds for the 2008 general election started a trend, and so the campaign finance reason for the late scheduling of conventions has gone away in subsequent cycles.
Finally, within the above general constraints, and the variable scheduling of the Olympics, political reasons can also drive the schedules. For example, the Democratic Party held its 2008 convention after the Beijing Olympics to "maximize momentum for our Democratic ticket in the final months of the Presidential election". In 2016, both the Republican and Democratic conventions moved to July, before the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in August. One reason why the Republican Party wanted a July convention was to help avoid a drawn-out primary battle similar to what happened in 2012 that left the party fractured heading into the general election. The Democrats then followed suit so they could provide a quicker response to the Republicans, rather than wait for a month until after the Olympics were over.
The 2020 Democratic National Convention was originally scheduled to take place July 13–16, but was postponed to August 17–20, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2020 Republican National Convention took place as scheduled from August 24–27. The Tokyo Olympics, originally scheduled to open on July 24, 2020, were also postponed, because of the pandemic, to July 2021, making 2020 the first time that nominating conventions did not coincide with the Olympics since 1944, when the games were cancelled due to World War II.
The schedule for 2024 returned to the standard for most of the late 20th century, with the conventions bracketing the 2024 Summer Olympics. The 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles start a little earlier, in mid-July, and this had the expected effect on the schedule with the 2028 Democratic Convention scheduled to start Aug 7, and with the GOP likely to follow in mid-late August. And unlike the 2000 Sydney Olympics, which were held in late September, the 2032 Brisbane Olympics start on July 23, 2032, potentially allowing a normal convention bracketing schedule in that year.
Participation
Each party sets its own rules for the participation and format of the convention. Broadly speaking, each U.S. state and territory party is apportioned a select number of voting representatives, individually known as delegates and collectively as the delegation. Each party uses its own formula for determining the size of each delegation, factoring in such considerations as population, proportion of that state's Congressional representatives or state government officials who are members of the party, and the state's voting patterns in previous presidential elections. The selection of individual delegates and their alternates, too, is governed by the bylaws of each state party, or in some cases by state law.
The 2004 Democratic National Convention counted 4,353 delegates and 611 alternates. The 2004 Republican National Convention had 2,509 delegates and 2,344 alternates. However, other attendees who do not participate in the formal business of the convention dwarf these individuals numerically. These include non-delegate party officials and activists, invited guests and companions, and international observers, not to mention numerous members of the news media, volunteers, protesters, and local business proprietors and promoters hoping to capitalize on the quadrennial event.
Location
The convention is typically held in a major city selected by the national party organization 18–24 months before the election is to be held, although the Republican National Committee voted in 2022 to allow the party to select its presidential convention sites six years in advance, and they chose Houston as their host city in 2023. As the two major conventions have grown into large, publicized affairs with significant economic impact, cities today compete vigorously to be awarded host responsibilities, citing their meeting venues, lodging facilities, and entertainment as well as offering economic incentives.
The location of early conventions was dictated by the difficulty of transporting delegates from far-flung parts of the country; early Democratic and Whig Conventions were frequently held in the central Eastern Seaboard port of Baltimore, Maryland. As the U.S. expanded westward and railroads connected cities, Midwestern locations such as Chicago, Illinois—which since 1860 has held 26 Republican and Democratic Conventions combined, more than any other city—became the favored hosts. In addition St. Louis, Missouri, hosted Democratic national nominating conventions in 1876, 1888, 1904, and 1916, as well as the national Republican convention of 1896 and a national Populist convention in the same year. The city had easy railroad access, numerous elegant hotels and expansive meeting facilities, with Democrats wanting to meet close to their base in the "Solid South."Gary N. Smith, "St. Louis Hosts the Political Conventions," Gateway Heritage: The Magazine of the Missouri Historical Society (Spring 1981) 1#4 pp 10–17. But the ubiquity of air travel in the mid twentieth century eroded the advantage of the central location of midwestern cities, and the infamous protest activity and police response at the 1968 Democratic National Convention ended Chicago's hosting dominance, with the city only holding two conventions since.
Baltimore is an excellent example of the changing nature of convention host cities. The most frequent host city of major party conventions in the 19th century, Baltimore is currently considered to lack an appropriate venue and sufficient hotel space for modern conventions. When the city made a longshot bid for the 2004 Democratic National Convention, the city proposed hosting the convention underneath a temporary canopy that would be erected at Oriole Park at Camden Yards (which would have likely necessitated its baseball team tenant to vacate the venue for a roughly two-month period of their season).