Party Nomination

Primary elections are the method in which each political party chooses its presidential candidate. Closed primary elections only allow citizens to vote for a possible candidate in the political party with which they’re registered. Open primary elections allow citizens to vote for any possible candidate. In addition, citizens either directly vote for a presidential candidate, or they vote for a delegate who is either “pledged” or “unpledged” to vote for a certain candidate at the national political parties’ respective conventions. All of these factors vary from state to state.

States can also hold caucuses. Caucuses are meetings in which voters convene to vote for the delegate that they wish to represent them and go to the national party convention. Each political party has a different caucus, and different procedures for running the caucus. Especially notable are Iowa’s caucuses; there are ninety-nine held, and they receive copious attention from the media. In the Democratic Party Iowa caucuses, the voters seat themselves on the side of the room that represents the delegate they wish to vote for; the undecided voters are in a separate section. Then, the people who have decided who they will vote for make speeches and try to convince the undecided voters to join their side. In the Republican Party Iowa caucuses, there’s no separation made between the people who prefer the different delegates. At the end of the meeting, the vote is taken, and the delegates are decided.

In the 2000 election, Vice President Al Gore and former Senator Bill Bradley were the two possible Democratic candidates. In 2000, Bradley’s campaign was based on the statement that he wished to restore public confidence and trust in the federal government, especially after the Lewinsky scandal. Gore responded by distancing himself from Clinton through several interviews, statements, and even switching his headquarters from Washington to Tennessee. Bradley also took on a more liberal platform than Gore, which was much more extreme and did not appeal to a wide range of voters. Gore and Bradley held several debates in which Gore boosted his position in the polls by going on the offensive against Bradley. Consequently, Gore ended up winning every single statewide primary or caucus, often obtaining a large majority of the vote. Bill Bradley withdrew from the race on March 9^th, having not won a single state, long before the primaries had been completed.

-Becca