The Presidency: Becoming President

Firsts in Presidential Nominations

In 1984, Geraldine Ferraro became the first woman nominated for the vice presidency by a major political party. She and presidential nominee Walter Mondale were soundly defeated by Ronald Reagan. In 2000, Joseph Lieberman became the first Jew nominated by a major party; Lieberman and presidential nominee Albert Gore lost one of the tightest races in American history. In 2008, Hillary Clinton narrowly missed being the first woman nominated for the presidency by a major political party. She was beaten in the Democratic primaries by Barack Obama, who went on to become the first minority candidate elected to the presidency.

Campaigning

The major parties select their presidential nominee at their national conventions, held every four years. At the conventions, delegates from each state vote and whichever candidate wins a majority of delegates becomes the party’s nominee. To win delegates, candidates compete in primary elections, held in each state prior to the convention. Primary races are usually hotly contested.

Because citizens get to vote in the primaries, they have a large role in the election. Prior to the 1972 election, voters played little role in selecting the party nominees, but that is not the case anymore. Before acquiring the party nomination, a presidential candidate must prove that he or she can attract voters by winning primaries.

Choosing a Running Mate

When a candidate decides to run, he or she must choose a running mate, the person who will be the party’s nominee for vice president. Many factors go into the choice of running mates: age, geographical location, ideological platforms, and personality. Abraham Lincoln, for example, chose slaveholding senator Andrew Johnson from Tennessee to be his running mate during his reelection campaign, hoping to convince the slave-holding states that had not seceded to remain in the Union. Ronald Reagan, in contrast, asked his former rival, George H. W. Bush, to be his running mate because Reagan knew that Bush would appeal to moderates and fiscal conservatives.