Wisconsin has 41 delegates for the RNC in Milwaukee. Here's what they do, how they are picked

WASHINGTON – The road to the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee officially begins with Iowa’s presidential nominating caucuses next week.

Voters in Iowa will be the first to start selecting their national convention delegates when they head to the polls on Jan. 15 — kicking off a complicated process that will eventually determine who will be named the Republican presidential nominee in Milwaukee in July.

There is not one uniform way Republicans across the country select their delegates. But, much like the Electoral College in the general election, candidates need to receive the majority of the delegate votes at the RNC to win the nomination.

Here’s what you need to know about the delegate selection process and how it works in Wisconsin:

What is a delegate?

When it comes to the RNC, delegates are Republicans who represent their state or congressional district at the nominating convention.

Delegates tend to be party officials, insiders or Republicans generally involved in GOP politics in their state.

How does Wisconsin select its RNC delegates?

Republicans will have 2,429 total delegates from across the country voting at the convention in Milwaukee, which will be held July 15-18. That means a Republican presidential candidate will need 1,215 delegate votes to secure the party’s nomination.

Wisconsin is responsible for 41 of those delegates.

Three delegates are Wisconsin’s RNC appointees — Republican Party of Wisconsin Chairman Brian Schimming, RNC committeewoman Maripat Krueger and RNC committeeman Tom Schreibel.

Outside of the appointees, the rest of the state’s delegates are either district delegates or at-large delegates.

Each of Wisconsin's eight congressional districts will receive three delegates. District chairmen before the April 2 primary must establish a list of about 20 potential delegates. After the primary, the Republican presidential candidate who wins a particular congressional district will then select three people off that district’s list whom the candidate prefers to serve as his or her delegates from the district.

(Those selections must be ratified at district caucuses after the primary, according to the Republican Party of Wisconsin’s constitution. A spokesman for the RPW said congressional districts can override the selections of a campaign.)

The remaining 14 at-large delegates are recommended by the Wisconsin GOP chairman — in this case Schimming — and selected by the Republican presidential candidate who wins Wisconsin’s statewide primary.

Wisconsin operates under a winner-take-all delegate selection process. That means presidential candidates who win a particular congressional district get all three of its delegates, and the candidate who wins the state’s primary receives all of the at-large candidates.

What determines the number of Wisconsin delegates?

The state’s three RNC appointees and 24 congressional district delegates generally remain static. But the number of at-large delegates can vary between presidential elections.

Each state receives a base of 10 at-large delegates, according to the RNC counsel’s office, and additional delegates are awarded based on a state’s Republican electoral success before Jan. 1, 2024.

States can receive an additional delegate if Republicans control a chamber of the state’s legislature and another delegate if Republicans control both chambers of the state’s legislature. In Wisconsin, Republicans control both the Assembly and the Senate.

Yet another delegate is awarded to states where Republicans control at least half of their state’s House seats. Republicans currently hold six out of Wisconsin's eight congressional districts.

Bonus at-large delegates are also given to states with Republican governors and to states that have elected a Republican senator in the last six years. (Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson won reelection in 2022.)

Wisconsin also has 38 “alternate delegates” to fill unexpected vacancies.

Do all states operate this way?

No. The way states select and allocate their convention delegates can vary.

Some states select their Republican at-large and congressional district delegates through state conventions and district caucuses. Others have committees assemble delegate lists and still others let presidential candidates take the lead in selecting potential delegates.

In most states, including Wisconsin, Republican delegates are required — or “bound” — to vote for the candidate based on the results of the primary or caucus in their states.

Those states tend to award their Republican delegates based on either a winner-take-all method or a proportional system, though a few states operate under other allocation methods.

In a winner-take-all system (as in Wisconsin), a presidential candidate will receive all of the delegates in a state or congressional district he or she wins.

States operating under a proportional system, however, award candidates delegates based on the share of the vote they win. There are many variations between states in how proportional allocations are handled.

Delegates to Guam, Montana, New Mexico and South Dakota are not bound to a candidate and can vote as they please at the RNC.

How does it work for Democrats?

Democrats also have at-large and congressional district delegates.

But unlike Republicans, Democrats in each state award delegates to candidates in a similar manner: based on their proportion of the primary vote — both statewide and in the districts, according to the 2024 Democratic National Convention’s delegate selection rules.

Candidates must win 15% of the statewide vote to receive statewide delegates and 15% of a congressional district vote to qualify for district-level delegates.

Wisconsin has a total of 95 delegates and seven alternates for the DNC, according to the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. Fifty-four of those delegates are district-level delegates, and delegates are allocated to a district based in part on a percentage of the district vote for Democrats in the 2020 presidential and 2022 gubernatorial elections.

The DNC is scheduled for Aug. 19-22 in Chicago.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin's 41 RNC delegates: What they do, how they are picked