Brokered convention
In United States politics, a brokered convention (sometimes referred to as an open convention and closely related to a contested convention) occurs when no candidate is nominated on the first ballot of a party's nominating convention. In many cases, delegates elected to a national, state or local convention through primaries or caucuses are pledged to vote for a particular candidate on the first ballot of the convention, meaning that the candidate with the necessary number of delegate pledges in advance of the convention is considered the presumptive nominee.