Before the presidential nomination season actually begins , there is often speculation about whether a single front runner would emerge . If there is no single candidate receiving a majority of delegates at the end of the primary season , a scenario called a '' ' brokered convention ' '' would result , where a candidate would be selected either at or near the convention , through political horse-trading and lesser candidates compelling their delegates to vote for one of the front runners . The best example was the 1924 Democratic Convention , which took 103 ballots . The situation is more likely to occur in the Democratic Party , because of its proportional representation system , but such a scenario has been the subject of speculation with regard to most contested nominations of both parties without actually coming to pass in recent years . It is a common scenario in fiction , most recently in an episode of '' The West Wing '' . The closest to a brokered convention in recent years was at the 1976 Republican National Convention , when neither Gerald Ford nor Ronald Reagan received enough votes in the primary to lock up the nomination . Since then , candidates have received enough momentum to reach a majority through pledged and bound delegates before the date of the convention
1976 Republican National Convention
1976 Republican National Convention
United States presidential nominating convention