The Tennessee Republican Primary Explained

By: Don Johnson, Executive Director of the Shelby County Republican Party

The Presidential Preference

Your first vote is for a Presidential Preference, or who you want to be the Republican nominee for President. It is the results of this vote that is used to determine how many delegates each Presidential candidate gets out of Tennessee.

Some states are "Winner-take-all", but Tennessee's delegates are allocated proportionally (unless one candidate were to get 2/3rds of the vote) so several candidates are likely to receive statewide delegates or delegates in any of our 9 Congressional Districts. A Presidential candidate must get at least 20% of the vote in either jurisdiction in order to get any delegates.

Here is an example using some previous Republican Presidents

Let's say the statewide result were something like this example:

Tennessee Republican Primary

Statewide vote

Lincoln, Abraham 30%

Reagan, Ronald: 28%

Eisenhower, Dwight 22%

Ford, Gerald 15%

Hoover, Herbert 6%

Ford and Hoover would not receive any delegates because they did not meet the 20% threshold. Delegates would be allocated based on the votes received by Lincoln, Reagan, and Eisenhower. Since 12 delegates are available statewide the distribution would be as follows:

5 delegate spots are for Lincoln

4 delegate spots are for Reagan

3 delegate spots are for Eisenhower

Each Congressional District also elects 3 delegates. Essentially the first place winner gets two and the second place finisher in that district gets one delegate spot:

Tennessee Republican Primary

9th District Results

Eisenhower, Dwight: 36%

Reagan, Ronald: 31%

Lincoln, Abraham: 22%

Ford, Gerald: 8%

Hoover, Herbert: 3%

Additionally, Thirteen delegates are chosen by the Tennessee Republican Party's State Executive Committee and the three RNC members (our State Chairwoman, National Committeeman and Committeewoman) also attend the convention as delegates.

These delegates are not pledged to any particular candidate and you don't have to worry about them on your ballot. This will make a total of fifty-five Tennesseans that will represent all Tennessee Republicans at the National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Voting for Delegates

After you have chosen your Presidential preference, the Republican Party lets the voters decide which individuals get to represent their favored candidate at the Convention.

Essentially, delegates pledged to each Presidential candidate are running against one another in order to get a ticket to represent their man at the Convention. If, using the above example, Lincoln gets 5 statewide delegate spots; the top 5 vote-getting delegate candidates pledged to him will go to the convention.

Do I have to bother voting for delegates at all?

You do not have to vote for any delegates in order for your Presidential Preference to count.

What if my Presidential preference doesn't have 12 statewide delegates (or 3 Congressional district delegates) to vote for?

You can just vote for the ones that are there, or vote for delegates for other Presidential candidates. It will not hurt your Presidential preference.

Can I vote for delegates for other Presidential candidates?

You have the option to vote for delegates who are pledged to candidates other than your own. Using the example above, lets say you are a Reagan supporter but you have a friend from church who is running as a delegate pledged to Lincoln. You can vote for Reagan, which helps him get more delegate spots, and vote for your friend under "Delegates pledged to Abraham Lincoln" to help him/her win the right to represent Lincoln at the Convention.