Brokered convention

A brokered convention (sometimes referred to as an open convention and closely related to a contested convention), in US politics, can occur during a presidential election when a political party fails to choose a nominee on the first round of delegate voting at the party's nominating convention.

Once the first ballot, or vote, has occurred, if no candidate has a majority of the delegates' votes, the convention is then considered brokered. The nomination is then decided through a process of alternating political horse trading, delegate vote trading and additional revotes. In that circumstance, all regular delegates, who may have been pledged to a particular candidate according to rules, which vary from state to state, are "released" and may switch their allegiance to a different candidate before the next round of balloting. It is hoped that the extra privilege extended to the delegates will result in a revote that yields a clear majority of delegates for one candidate.

The term "brokered" implies a strong role for political bosses, which used to be more common and is associated with deals made in proverbial "smoke-filled rooms." The term "contested" is a more modern term for a convention in which no candidate holds a majority, but the role of party leaders is weaker in determining the eventual outcome.

For the Democratic Party, unpledged delegate votes, also called "superdelegate votes", used to be counted on the first ballot. The term "brokered convention" has referred to a convention whose outcome is decided by superdelegate votes, rather than pledged delegates alone, but that is not the original sense of the term and has not been a commonly-used definition for a "contested convention." As of 2018, Democratic superdelegates will participate only if no winner emerges after the first round of balloting.