Presidential Primary Delegate Allocation

Mississippi has a total of 40 delegates to award. A candidate needs 1,144 to secure the Republican nomination. Of the 40 total delegates, 3 are from the RNC (MSGOP Chairman, RNC committeeman, RNC committeewoman), 12 are from the four Congressional Districts (3 each), and 25 are At-Large.

The AL delegate allocation is proportional with a 15 percent threshold. If a candidate gets below 15 percent, they will not be awarded any delegates. Each candidate who receives 15 percent will be allocated a portion of the delegates proportionate to their share of the vote going to candidates who surpassed the 15 percent threshold. If a candidate wins a majority of the vote (50 percent plus 1), they will receive all 25 AL delegates. The same rules apply for the delegates awarded by Congressional Districts.

In theory, a candidate could win a majority statewide and they would receive the 25 AL delegates, but they would also need to win a majority in each of the four Congressional Districts to win the other 12 delegates.

For rounding purposes, fractional proportions are rounded to the nearest whole number. If allocation results in delegates being left unallocated, the remaining AL/ CD delegates will awarded to the candidate with the highest vote total in the state (or Congressional District). If allocation results in too many delegates being allocated, the over-allocated delegates will be taken from the candidate with the lowest vote total in the state (or Congressional District) that received delegates.

The delegates are bound to the candidate entitled to their vote until released.

Bonus delegates: There is a base of 10 delegates that each state receives. In addition to that, Mississippi received a total of 15 bonus delegates. Of those, 9 were awarded based on the 2008 presidential vote, one bonus for having a Republican governor, two for having two Republican Senators, one for having a majority of the House delegation, and one each for each chamber in the state legislature. Mississippi just received the 25th At-Large delegate for winning the state House in November.