Republican National Convention

Delegates from all fifty U.S. states and from American dependencies and territories, including Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands, attend the convention and cast their votes.

[1] The 1912 Republican National Convention saw the business-oriented faction supporting William Howard Taft turn back a challenge from former President Theodore Roosevelt, who boasted broader popular support and even won a primary in Taft's home state of Ohio.

Roosevelt would run on the Progressive Party ticket, splitting the Republicans and thereby handing the election to Democrat Woodrow Wilson.

It was also the first time any convention was broadcast over radio – to nine cities through a special link over long-distance telephone lines.

It was carried by an early version of the NBC Television Network and consisted of flagship W2XBS (now WNBC) in New York City, W3XE (now KYW-TV) in Philadelphia and W2XB (now WRGB) in Schenectady and Albany.

Senator Barry Goldwater from Arizona won the nomination, easily turning away Pennsylvania governor William Scranton and others more favorable to the party establishment.

An exception was when former California Governor Ronald Reagan nearly toppled incumbent President Gerald Ford at the 1976 Republican National Convention in Kansas City.

Pat Buchanan delivered a speech enthusiastically endorsing the conservative side of the culture war in American society at the 1992 Republican National Convention in Houston.

There may have been political considerations in the selection, since no Republican has won the presidency without winning Ohio since Abraham Lincoln in the 1860 election.

[5] The party chose Charlotte, North Carolina as the location for its 2020 Republican National Convention, but pulled out at the last minute.

The convention proceedings were then held remotely from various locations, with the final day taking place on the South Lawn of the White House.

The party's presidential nominee is chosen primarily by pledged delegates, which are in turn selected through a series of individual state caucuses and primary elections.

The Republican Party's rules leave discretion to the states in choosing how to award their respective pledged delegates to the candidates.

Delegates on the floor of the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland
Musical Fund Hall at 808 Locust Street in Center City Philadelphia , where the first Republican nominating convention for president and vice president was held from June 17 to 19, 1856
Pat Nixon addresses the 1972 Republican National Convention in Miami Beach in support of her husband 's reelection in the 1972 presidential election , representing the first time a First Lady ever addressed a Republican National Convention; it has since become a common practice.