Once campaigns announce, they must satisfy ballot-access and party requirements, build organizations in early states, debate, attract coverage, and prepare supporters for primaries or caucuses. Calendar order matters. An early result can change donations, endorsements, staffing, and public expectations, even though the contest receives only the delegate positions assigned by its rules. Candidates who withdraw narrow the choices available to later participants, so people in different states may confront different fields.

The middle of the timeline is a winnowing process: candidates try to survive while the field becomes smaller. A victory can produce momentum, meaning political gains that carry into later contests. A loss can damage fundraising or expose a weak coalition. Endorsements from departing rivals may help unite supporters, but votes and delegates do not transfer automatically; the current rules still govern each formal effect.

A presumptive nominee is a candidate whose delegate support and the remaining possibilities make another winner extraordinarily unlikely. That label describes a political judgment, not a substitute for the party's formal procedure. The party completes the presidential nomination through the convention process authorized for that cycle, which may include an in-person ballot, a remote or preconvention roll call, certification, and later ceremonial events.

The chronology is therefore: testing support, declaring and qualifying, competing in state contests, winnowing the field, reaching presumptive status if the numbers permit, and completing the nomination through convention rules. Once that timeline is clear, a different question remains: who participates, and exactly how does a stated formula turn votes into delegate positions?

Video lesson: Political Campaigns: Crash Course Government and Politics #39