DELEGATE COUNT: Here's who's winning the race for the 2020 Democratic nomination

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No more superdelegates this time.

• The race for the 2020 Democratic nomination is officially on, and candidates will continue their race to the convention with the New Hampshire primary on February 11.
• The Democratic nomination isn't decided by who wins the most votes, but by which candidates receive the most delegates to represent them.
• The number of delegates each state gets is decided by a number of factors including how big the state is, how Democratic they lean, when they vote, and if they vote with their neighbors.
• At the convention, a candidate will be nominated when a simple majority of 1,991 out of 3,979 total pledged delegates support a given candidate.
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The race for the 2020 Democratic nomination is officially on, and candidates will continue their race to the convention with the New Hampshire primary on February 11.

Between February and June 2020, all 50 US states and seven US territories will hold a Democratic primary election or caucus to allocate delegates to the candidates, which began with the Iowa caucuses on February 3.

The Democratic nomination isn't decided by who wins the most votes, but by which candidates receive the most delegates - people selected by each campaign from every state or district - to represent them at the Democratic National Convention, taking place July 13-16 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Here's where the candidates stand right now:

So far, only Iowa has announced tentative pledged national delegates to the convention.

The DNC has four states who vote early in every election cycle: Iowa on February 3, New Hampshire on February 11, Nevada on February 22, and South Carolina on February 29. While these primaries hold disproportionate importance in the process by going first, they only account for 4% of the total pledged delegates.

Democrats allocate most of their pledged delegates proportionally by legislative district, in addition to allocating at-large and PLEO (party leader and elected official) delegates based on the statewide vote breakdown.

Most states allocate their delegates by congressional districts, but some, like Texas and New Jersey, use state legislative districts instead.

While delegates are allocated proportionally, in nearly every state the minimum threshold to earn delegates is 15% of the vote. This means candidates must break 15% of the vote either at the district or state level to earn any delegates at all.

Every state has a certain number of delegates to allocate, which is determined by a number of factors including how big the state is, how Democratic they lean, when they vote, and if they vote with their neighbors.

At the convention, a candidate will be nominated when a simple majority of 1,991 out of 3,979 total pledged delegates support a given candidate.

Fifteen states, the territory of American Samoa, and Democrats who live abroad are holding Democratic primaries or caucuses on Super Tuesday, which takes place on March 3, allocating 35% of the total delegates on that date alone.

After Super Tuesday, primary dates get tactical, since states receive a delegate bonus for scheduling their primaries later in the cycle and holding their primaries on the same day as neighboring states.

In general, states want to balance their role in narrowing the size of the field with having the final say on who wins by having the most possible delegates at the convention.

Some states - the ones on Super Tuesday - are willing to leave all the extra delegates on the table in order to get the first bite at the apple. Other states will wait until the last possible vote - smaller states like New Jersey and New Mexico - to gain outsized representation at the convention and potentially a shot at playing kingmaker.

Sixty percent of delegates will be decided after the March 17 primaries, and after the April 28 "Acela primaries," 90% of the total delegates to the convention will have been allocated, meaning we'll have a pretty good idea of who is favored to win the nomination by that point.

Read more:

Here's how Democrats will elect their presidential nominee over the next several months

All of the important primary, convention, and debate dates you need to know for the 2020 presidential election

Here are the last days you can register to vote for the 2020 primary elections in every state and how to do it

The 19 election nights you need to know for the 2020 Democrat and Republican presidential primaries and caucuses

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