How many delegates does a Republican need to win the nomination?

Answer 1

A Candidate needs to have a majority of the delegates to win. The race is over if any one candiate gets 1245 delegates, for that means they have slightly over 50% of the delegates and therefor a guarenteed majority.

Here is a bunch of info from www.republicansource.com

Total Number of Delegates: 2488

The allocation of delegates to the 2008 Republican National Convention, which will be held September 1-4, 2008 in a city to be announced in early 2007, is determined as follows:

BASE DELEGATES Each state selects six at-large delegates. American Samoa, Virgin Islands & Guam have four at-large delegates each; Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia have fourteen at-large delegates.

DISTRICT DELEGATES Each state also selects three delegates for each member it has in the U.S. House of Representatives

BONUS DELEGATES Each state can earn additional delegates by meeting one or more of the following requirements: the state cast a majority of its votes for the Republican presidential candidate in the previous presidential election, the state elected Republicans to the U.S. House or Senate, selected a Republican Governor or state legislative majorities, and / or the state holds its presidential primary election after March 15th (this is to discourage states from holding early primaries).

Bonus delegates are awarded based on the number of party members elected as Presidential Electors (2004), Governors (2004-2007), House members (2004-2007), Senators (2002-2007), and state legislatures (2004-2007).

Republican delegate counts are based on the number of Republicans elected to the State Legislatures, Governors chairs, U.S. House seats, and U.S. Senators seats through 31 December 2007. Republican unpledged delegate counts are determined by state (or equivalent) party rules and assume that the policies of 2004 will apply in 2008.

When an individual formally releases delegates already pledged to him or her - a withdrawing candidate must specifically free his/her own delegates to vote for whomever they might choose during the Convention - it is not a requirement for those delegates to vote for another candidate who is endorsed by the withdrawing candidate.

However, history has demonstrated that most, if not all, delegates pledged to a candidate who has released them will follow that candidate's lead and vote for the candidate he/she has endorsed. Nevertheless, a withdrawing candidate may not release delegates pledged to him/her so long as the presidential nomination is still undetermined (after all, these delegates can be a valuable bargaining chip for future considerations). Even where a nomination is already determined, a presidential candidate who represents the Party fringe might hold onto his delegates as long as possible in order to get concession.

Please refer to the related link for more information.

Answer 2

There are 2,286 delegates to be chosen. A candidate must accumulate 1,144 delegate to win the Republican nomination.