Learn about US Presidential Campaigns
2024-07-26
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1Every four years, the United States holds an election for the president in November.
2This lesson aims to help teachers and learners understand the political processes and expressions used during the election campaign.
3Let us begin with the expression, political party.
4In elections, parties organize candidates who share party members' ideas about how government should operate.
5They try to win elections to gain and keep political power.
6There are two major political parties in the U.S.
7They are the Democratic Party and the Republican Party.
8There are other small political parties at the national level.
9These include the Libertarian and Green parties.
10Each of the U.S. states and territories holds votes early in the election year.
11In many states and territories, these votes are called primaries.
12You may know the word "primary" as an adjective meaning "happening or coming first" as in "primary school."
13When speaking of elections, it is a noun, but it has a similar meaning - it is the first election in a voting process that takes place over one year.
14You might also hear the term caucus.
15A caucus is also a kind of election, but it is held privately by the party and usually does not involve state election officials or equipment.
16The Iowa caucus was for a long time the first presidential contest during an election year.
17In a primary or a caucus, voters choose the party's candidates for local and state offices as well as for national offices.
18The candidates who get the most votes become the candidates for the election in the fall.
19Primaries can be "open" or "closed."
20Anyone can take part in an open primary election - even members of another party.
21Only registered party members can vote in a closed primary.
22In some states, voters choose delegates in the primaries. State party organizations have different rules for choosing them.
23Delegates are people who will attend their party's convention, or general meeting.
24When a delegate is elected to choose a particular candidate, we say the delegate is pledged to the candidate.
25To pledge is to promise something.
26Each party holds a national convention - a large meeting where the delegates officially nominate the candidate that the party supports for the presidential election.
27The verb "nominate" means to officially choose someone as a candidate for a position. You will hear some other forms of the word in election news.
28To describe the process of having the delegates choose a candidate, we use the noun form, "nomination."
29At the convention, the candidate who gains the majority of delegates is called the "nominee."
30The nominee gives a speech to accept the nomination.
31The party platform is a statement of the ideology of the party and its candidate.
32At the party convention, the organizing committee shares its platform.
33The platform is a statement of the policies that the party hopes to put in place during its candidate's term in office.
34Presidential candidates travel the country speaking to voters at a series of events called rallies.
35Reporters use the expression "campaign trail" to describe these events.
36This is a metaphor for progressing along a path toward a goal.
37The election campaign is sometimes called a "race," another metaphor comparing the election campaign to a sporting competition.
38Part of the campaign process is for the candidates to debate each other.
39These are televised events where a reporter asks questions that interest the public and gives each candidate a limited time to answer them.
40The form of the political debates is not the same as traditional academic debates, where teams compete under clear rules and time limits.
41Presidential candidates and others who run for public office must find money to pay for those rallies, television advertising, and campaign workers.
42A common way to pay for a campaign is to ask for money.
43People who give to a candidate are donors.
44The Federal Election Commission makes rules about how much, when, and how donations can be made.
45Researchers get the opinions of voters in an effort to guess, or predict, the results of an upcoming election.
46They do this with polls, or public opinion studies.
47This word has two meanings in the elections.
48One is where a researcher might ask you about your party affiliation and which candidate you plan to support in a telephone call.
49Your party affiliation is the party you are registered with or that you support.
50The other meaning of "poll" is the place where you go to vote on election day.
51We can also use "polling place."
52Schools, religious centers and public buildings can be polling places.
53In them, voters cast their ballot secretly.
54That means they fill out their ballot without pressure from others in the room and turn in their ballot to be counted by poll workers.
55In the last two election years of 2020 and 2022, people could send in their ballots by mail.
56But polling places remain important for processing and counting ballots.
57Now that you have some of the expressions used to talk about the presidential campaign, you should use them with some care.
58It is not normal to ask someone what party he or she is a member of although many people will offer that information freely.
59In some situations, such as among close friends, you will hear Americans talk about the candidates and voice their opinions openly.
60But when talking with a new acquaintance or a stranger, it is best to avoid asking about political affiliation.
61Also, know that some workplaces have rules against political activity, and, in government, most political activity is not legal although people often share their opinions.
62I'm Jill Robbins. And I'm Andrew Smith.