A delegate is someone sent to act and vote on others' behalf. The whole question of how faithfully they should follow the people who sent them is one of the oldest puzzles in representative government.
A delegate is a person chosen to represent a larger group and act on its behalf, whether at a party convention, a constitutional convention, or any assembly. The word comes from the Latin delegare, to send on a mission or assign.
There is a classic tension in the role. Should a delegate be a pure messenger, voting exactly as the people who sent them would wish? Or a trustee, using their own judgment for the good of those they represent? The statesman Edmund Burke famously argued for the trustee model, telling his voters he owed them his judgment, not just his obedience.
In American politics, delegates are most visible at presidential nominating conventions. Voters in primaries and caucuses choose delegates pledged to candidates, and those delegates formally select the party's nominee.
Delegates also shaped the nation's founding. The men who wrote the Constitution in 1787 were delegates, sent by their states to a convention, where they argued, compromised, and acted on behalf of the people back home.
