primaries

1. State elections of delegates to the nominating convention that chooses a major party's presidential candidate. In some states, delegates are elected by popular vote; in other states, party caucus es or miniconventions choose delegates.

Notes

Primaries occur at different times during the presidential election year, a situation that drags out the process by which parties nominate candidates but allows wide public exposure to candidates and issues.

Example Sentences

But so-called jungle primaries are notoriously hard to predict or poll.

From The Daily Beast

Several Republicans won primaries in 2014 by running as ideologically pure conservatives who wanted new leadership in the House.

From The Daily Beast

They excite people, and primaries tend to be dominated by voters who are the most excited.

From The Daily Beast

Presidential primaries have a way of bringing out issues that later become policy or law.

From The Daily Beast

And that debate during the 1992 primaries worked out pretty well for the nominee.

From The Daily Beast

He had personally led the fight in the Fraser County primaries and had vanquished Bassett!

From Project Gutenberg

She did not relish the idea that he had been defeated in the primaries; in her mind defeat was inseparable from dishonor.

From Project Gutenberg

After the primaries you counted noses among the candidates and found it was going to be a tight squeak—a damned tight squeak.

From Project Gutenberg

Each of these is composed of, or can be resolved into, two primaries.

From Project Gutenberg

Orange, green and violet, each a combination of two primaries.

From Project Gutenberg