2016 Republican Primary

The 2016 Republican Presidential Primaries were a series of primaries and caucuses taking place in all fifty states, along with the District of Columbia and five U.S. territories, between February 1, and June 7. Sanctioned by the Republican Party, these elections are designed to select the 2,472 delegates
to send to the Republican National Convention, resulting in the selection of Calvin Reed as the Republican candidate, along with Buck Havich as Vice-President.
The primaries opened with four major candidates, Senator Matteos Egazarian, Senator Eric Gonzalez, Representative Henry Hutchinson, and then-Speaker Jay Garestaer. Representative Hutchinson, leading the race after New Hampshire, dropped out due to scandal, to be replaced by late-comer Calvin Reed.
On Super Tuesday, now-Secretary of State Jay Garestaer underperformed, winning only his home state of Alaska, narrowing the field to Reed, Egazarian, and Gonzalez, with Egazarian as the front-runner by a narrow margin. However, a week of bad press and scandal, along with campaign issues for Gonzalez, led to Reed winning all but Ohio on Super Tuesday II, putting him firmly in the lead.
Moving forward, the race became an attempt between the two populist candidates, Egazarian and Gonzalez, to attempt to deny Reed the convention. However, the campaigns were unable to cooperate, and Senator Gonzalez was mathematically eliminated after the southwestern and second Mississippi primaries, and Egazarian after the subsequent Republican primary, leaving Reed as the only Republican candidate capable of achieving the nomination.
At this point, Reed formally suspended his primary campaign to switch to the General Election. Egazarian and Gonzalez both continued to attempt to block Reed, with Gonzalez refusing to ever drop out before the convention, but failed to gain any momentum. Reed formally passed the 1,237 delegate threshold on May 10th, after the West Virginia and Nebraska primaries.
At the 2016 Republican National Convention, Reed chose Senator Buck Havich for his running mate.