It’s that time in the election cycle again.

As the Republican National Convention kicks off next week, Florida’s 99 delegates, and their 96 alternates, will be traveling to Cleveland, Ohio. But how does someone become a state delegate?

Come Monday, Cleveland is all about numbers.

Fifteen at-large delegates from the sunshine state - three automatic delegates, and the 81 elected delegates, will descend into the Quicken Loans arena to vote for the party’s next presidential nominee.

But how did they get here?

Former U.S. Senator GeorgeLeMieux, from Fort Lauderdale, is one of the at-large delegates this year. He said delegates need to be active within the party and can only be picked one of two ways.  

“There are two ways delegates are picked by Republicans in Florida. They’re picked within congressional districts but also the state party is able to pick some delegates," he said. "And I was chosen at a meeting of the state board of the Republican party of Florida to be one of the at-large, or statewide delegates.”

The other 81 were elected by a trio of the party’s county chairs, a state committeeman and committeewoman. Three were chosen for each of Florida’s 27 congressional districts.

LeMieux said his track to become a delegate did not cost him anything. He advises any Floridians wanting to get involved in 2020, to start trying early on.

“It’s hard to become a delegate to a convention, it usually takes a lot of time in party politics in order to get selected, but it’s not too early to start,” he said.  

This is LeMieux’s second time being a delegate. 

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