Concerned about the shortened length of campaigns, parties have begun to

• A. Move back their conventions to later in the year
• B. Do nothing
• C. Reduce frontloading of primary elections and reduce delegates from early states
• D. Move up early voting by giving more delegates to early states

Answer: (C)

Frontloading and how delegates are allocated shape how long a nomination fight lasts. When many states hold their contests early and those states award a lot of delegates, candidates have to campaign across a wide array of early states for a longer period to build enough delegates. If parties want to shorten the campaign, they would pull back on that early surge—reduce frontloading so fewer contests happen early—and trim how many delegates early states can deliver. With less weight on the early rounds, the nomination path doesn't stretch out as long, so the overall campaign season can be shorter.

Choosing to move conventions later or to do nothing wouldn’t directly address the timing of the contests across the primary calendar, and moving up early voting by giving more delegates to early states would actually intensify frontloading, potentially lengthening the process.