The electoral college has absolutely nothing to do with nominating process for US presidential and vice presidential candidates. Each political party controls its own process of nominations limited only by the level of cooperation from each of the states.
The first Republican Nominee for President was John C. Fremont. Unfortunately, he lost the election, and the first Republican President was Abraham Lincoln.
It was the first presidential election with a nominee from the Republican Party.
The Republican Presidential nominee in the election of 1964 was Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater.
Hurbert Humphrey
Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.
The Democratic Party's nominee for vice president in the 1864 presidential elections was George Pendelton. He was the running mate of the Party's presidential nominee George B. McClellan.
In the U.S. presidential election of 1872, Horace Greeley, the Democratic Party Presidential Nominee, died 24 days after the casting of the popular votes and 17 days before the casting of the electoral votes. If he had survived the election, based on the November election results, even with 100% of the votes from each of the states he won he would have gotten a total of only 18.7% of the votes.
Donald J. Trump
the 2004 United States presidential election. Bush, the incumbent president and member of the Republican Party, secured his re-election victory, defeating Kerry, the Democratic nominee and U.S. Senator from Massachusetts. It was a closely contested election, with Bush ultimately winning 286 electoral votes to Kerry's 251.
A presidential Primary
It is not a primary election. A national party convention is an election convention in which delegates from the 50 states cast their votes in support of the new nominee. This event usually takes place after the primary elections and is considered the beginning of the campaign for the general election. There was a time when these conventions were important in choosing a nominee. Today presidential nominees are usually known months ahead of a national convention.
It is not official but it appears that Newt Gingrich will suspend his campaign to be the 2012 Republican nominee for president. Gingrich's campaign is very much in debt and is not drawing the supporters that they had hoped.