预选会议/核心小组（Caucus）

预选会议是地方级会议，在这个会议上，一个政党在市、镇或者郡县中的注册党员对支持本党哪一位候选人作出决定。在州选举或全国联邦职位竞选中，这些地方会议意见的总汇结果决定了该州党员所支持的候选人。Caucus一词也用来指由一些民选官员基于共同目标组成的团体，旨在为支持共同的政治议程作政策规划，例如著名的“国会黑人核心小组”（Congressional Black Caucus）和“国会拉美裔核心小组”(Congressional Hispanic Caucus）。这两个小组的成员分别致力于讨论和推进各自选民群体的利益。

Caucus

A caucus is a meeting at the local level in which registered members of a political party in a city, town or county gather to express support for candidates. For statewide or national offices, those recommendations are combined to determine the state party nominee. The term also is used to describe a group of elected officials with a common goal that meets to plan policy in support of a shared political agenda. Two well-known examples of such groups are the Congressional Black Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, whose members discuss and advance the interests of their respective constituencies.