The Democratic presidential race began with 25 candidates running for the party’s nomination.

The way to win the nomination is through the primary contests that occur throughout the first half of 2020, with candidates winning delegates from different states and territories. The delegates ultimately decide the nominee at the party’s convention. 

There are two main ways for candidates to win delegates for a party nomination; one way is by proportional results. If a state has 100 delegates, for example, and a candidate wins 60 percent of the vote, they will then receive 60 delegates. The other way to earn delegates is essentially a winner-takes-all method. If a candidate has more popular votes than anyone else in a state, they will win all of the delegates available in that state.

All of the Democratic primaries give delegates through proportional results with a 15 percent threshold to be eligible for delegates.

Several of the candidates earned delegates during their time running in the primary; however, there are only three Democratic candidates left: former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, former Mayor Mike Bloomberg, former Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who won the most delegates from the Iowa caucuses, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar all earned delegates but have since left the race.

“A candidate who is no longer in the race that earned at-large delegates will have those delegates reapportioned among the candidates remaining in the race,” said Maddie Anderson, chair of the Story Country Democrats.

Anderson said the delegates are redistributed to the remaining candidates at the discretion of the owner of them. However, it’s not the same for candidates who have officially dropped out.

“A candidate who has dropped out does not decide who to ‘give’ their delegates to,” Anderson said.

Most of the candidates have simply “suspended” their campaigns rather than drop out of the race entirely.

“[T]he wording is important for many reasons,” said Mack Shelley, Iowa State professor and chair of the political science department. “One of them is that it allows them to hang onto the campaign funding they’ve received. They could use it within reason, or they could send it to another candidate, probably in return for something in the campaign.”

The same situation of exchange works for the delegates.

“[A]s long as the campaign is suspended, it allows the candidates to hang onto their delegates,” Shelley said. “Somebody with a larger number of delegates that are still bound to them use their delegates as a bit of a bargain.”

Once the campaign is officially suspended, candidates have less say in where their won delegates go.

“[I]f the campaign is officially done, as opposed to suspended, then the delegates are able to go to whichever candidate they please,” Shelley said. “They will likely go wherever their candidate suggests that they support.”

The candidates have their own choice in who they vote for after their candidate officially ends their campaign: “Once they’re released, they could vote for anybody; they wouldn’t even have to be an official candidate,” Shelley said.