Winning the presidential nomination is all about delegates. But how does the process work?

By now, Americans should be well aware that the process of electing a president isn’t like electing a senator or governor. In presidential primaries, the major political parties use a complex delegate selection process to pick their nominees to compete in November. Candidates win delegates in a state based on their performance in a primary or caucus. Democrats use a standardized proportional method to allocate delegates in every state. Republican allocation procedures vary state by state. The Republican National Committee released nomination plans Tuesday that lay out various ways in which states will assign delegates that a candidate must accumulate to become the party's presidential candidate in 2024.