It's only February, but it's already been a whirlwind year in politics. The candidates are racking up votes are racking up votes across the country, and are preparing to win even more on Super Tuesday. But what exactly do those votes mean, and how does a candidate actually win their party's nomination?
The national parties give each state a certain number of delegates, based on a series of complex formulas that take into account how many electoral votes the state has, how many party members are in the state's Congress, and other factors. Generally speaking, the more people that live in a state, the more delegates that state has.
But here's where things get tricky: BOTH parties give out a different number of delegates to each state. For the Republican Party, Illinois has 69 delegates and Iowa has 30. Among Democrats, Illinois has 182 delegates while Iowa has 52.
So far, only 4 states have voted, including Iowa, and less than 4% of all Democratic delegates and 5% of all Republican delegates have been distributed.
Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders acknowledged, "This is a race where you got to get 2,400 delegates. 2,400 delegates. So we are in this race to win it and I think we are going to pull off one of the great political upsets." Republican contender Marco Rubio agreed, "It's important to take a deep breath here. First of all, the Republican nomination is decided by delegates. It's over 1,200 delegates you need to have and we're nowhere near that number."
And by the time the people of Illinois get a chance to voice their votes on March 15th, more than half of the delegates will be distributed.