# data[].attributes.headline
Nominating the Presidential and Vice-Presidential Candidates

# data[].attributes.subject
Nominating the Presidential and Vice-Presidential Candidates

# data[].attributes.body
- After several speeches and parades of delegates, the balloting starts.
- The clerk reads an alphabetical roll call of the states and the chairperson of each state delegation calls out the delegates’ votes.
- The candidate who receives a majority becomes the nominee.
- If no candidate wins the majority, then further roll calls are taken until a candidate drops out or delegates change their votes.
- Party leaders benefit from the early victory of one candidate, having more time to plan the convention and unify the party.
- The convention can usually then becomes a scripted television event and ceremonial function.
-The vice-presidential candidate is also nominated at the convention.

# data[].attributes.body
- The method most commonly used today to nominate candidates is the direct primary, an election in which party members select people to run in the general election.
- Two major types of primary elections are held.
- Most states hold a closed primary, in which only members of a political party can vote.
- Only Democrats pick Democratic candidates for office, and only Republicans can vote in the Republican primary.
- In an open primary, all voters may participate, even if they do not belong to the party, but they can vote in only one party’s primary.

# data[].attributes.body
- To be successful, a party needs strong leadership and good organization at every level.
- Both major parties employ small paid staffs in permanent party offices at the county, state, and national levels.
- At the local level, parties choose which candidates to run under the party’s name and distribute information about the party and its candidates to attract voters to the polls.
- Sometimes local party officials will pass on recommendations for judicial or executive appointments to the state or national elected officials from their party.

# data[].attributes.body
- Americans have become increasingly polarized. Both parties have become more ideologically homogenous.
- This means that party members and elected officials are more likely to agree on all points with the party platform and less likely to cross party lines on key issues.
- A variety of strategies have been proposed to reduce polarization: from expanding the electorate by encouraging more Americans to vote to moving toward proportional representation to increasing the influence of third parties.
- More ideological challengers win the party’s nomination, and legislative bodies are then composed with fewer moderates and more liberals and conservatives.

# data[].attributes.body
- Party identification measures a voter’s sense of psychological attachment to a political party.
- It is a state of mind. Voting, on the other hand, is a behavior.
-  A very small percentage of Americans identified with one of the minor parties.
- The Republican Party tends to have more white, male, educated, and religious members than the population at large.
- Generally, the Democratic Party has more women, minorities, and young members than the population at large.

# data[].attributes.body
- The Republican Party supports “individuals’ rights in opposition to a large, intrusive government.”
- The party opposes too much government intervention in the economy. - It does not believe government should burden businesses with excessive regulation.
- Republicans generally prefer lower taxes and oppose taxing wealthy people at significantly higher rates than poorer people.
- Republicans support restrictions on public employee unions.

Democratic Party
-The Democratic Party says that it believes that “we’re greater together than we are on our own; that this country succeeds when everyone gets a fair shot, when everyone does their fair share.”
- The Democrats believe that the government should generally take a bigger role in providing social services and security to Americans.
- Democrats would prefer to increase taxes on the wealthy and reduce taxes on poorer Americans.

# data[].attributes.body
- Republicans are sometimes referred to as the GOP and are often represented by the color red and the symbol of an elephant.
- Democrats are often associated with the color blue and the symbol of a donkey. - These two parties agree on some foundational beliefs and values.
- They both believe America should have a mixed capitalist economy, support the Constitution and Bill of Rights, believe in the value of private property, and emphasize individual achievement.
- The two parties disagree on many key social, economic, and business issues. Each party sets out a platform, or statement of its beliefs on issues.
- The platforms are adopted in party conventions.

# data[].attributes.body
- An ideology is a set of basic beliefs about life, culture, government, and society.
- Sometimes, people on the left of the political spectrum have a liberalideology, while people on the right of the political spectrum have a conservative ideology.
- Most Americans fall somewhere along a spectrum between those two ends.
- Many are moderates, falling somewhere in between liberal and conservative. - Some are liberal on certain issues and conservative on others.
- A political ideology can give a person a framework for looking at government and public policy.
- It can also give a person clues about which political party they identify with. - The Democratic Party has been more associated with liberals and moderate-liberals, while the Republican Party is more associated with conservatives and moderate-conservatives.

# data[].attributes.body
- Another difficulty for third-party candidates is that nearly all elected officials in the United States are selected by single-member districts.
- Under this system, no matter how many candidates compete in a district, only one will win.
- By contrast, many nations use an election system based on proportional representation.
- Third parties often have problems with financing campaigns.
- Candidates from the major political parties can choose to get government funding to help pay for their campaigns.

# data[].attributes.body
- A third party is any party other than one of the two major parties.
- In any election, more than one party may run against the major parties, yet each of them is labeled a “third” party.
- Because they rarely win major elections, third parties are also called minor parties.
- A third party runs candidates who propose ways to remedy this situation.
- Single-issue parties focus exclusively on one major social, economic, or moral issue.
Another type of third party is the ideological party, which has a particular set of ideas.
- The third type of minor party is the splinter party, which splits away from one of the major parties because of some disagreement, like the failure of a popular figure to gain the major party’s presidential nomination.

# data[].attributes.body
- By the end of the Civil War, two major parties dominated the national political scene.
- The Republicans generally represented the Northern states and controlled the presidency and both houses of Congress.
- The Democrats tended to be from the Southern states.
- Democrats held the presidency for only four terms between 1860 and 1932.
- In 1932 the Democratic Party won the White House and assumed control of Congress.

# data[].attributes.body
-  The two original parties were the Federalists, who called for a strong central government, and the Democratic-Republicans, who believed that the states should have more power.
- After Federalist John Adams became president in 1796, the party’s power quickly declined.
- The Democratic-Republicans dominated politics into the 1820s.

# data[].attributes.body
- One-party systems are usually found in nations with authoritarian governments.
- Only one political party exists, often because the government tolerates no opposition; in these nations, the party is the government, and the party leaders run the government and set all policy.
-  Two-party systems- Only about a dozen nations have systems in which two major political parties compete for power, although minor parties exist. Like the United States.
- Multi-party systems do not allow for as much opposition as it may appear.

# data[].attributes.body
- Parties contribute to political stability.
- When one party loses control of the government, the transfer of power takes place peacefully.
- No violent revolutions occur after elections, as they do in some nations.
-  In the United States, the losing party accepts the outcome of elections because it knows that the party will continue to exist as the opposing party and someday will return to power.

# data[].attributes.body
- Political parties also dispense patronage, or favors given to reward party loyalty, to their members.
- These favors often include jobs, contracts, and appointments to government positions.
- Business executives or labor unions that contribute heavily to a political party
- Patronage may be unseemly if inexperienced people get key jobs as a reward just because they donated a lot of money to a winning candidate.
- Also patronage allows the party in power to be sure there are at least some very loyal people in government to carry out the party’s visions for public policy.

# data[].attributes.body
- A political party is a group of people with broad common interests who organize to win elections, control government, and thereby influence government policies.
- The most successful political parties win on Election Day when more of their fans come to the polls.
- But, once party candidates win elections, their work has just begun.