President of the United States

Article Outline

Introduction; Term of Office and Qualifications; Election to the Presidency; Presidential Succession; Responsibilities and Powers; The Executive Branch; The Life of the President; History of Presidential Leadership

Primary Elections

Political parties choose their presidential nominees through primary elections and party caucuses (meetings). In these state contests the major political parties—the Democrats and Republicans—select delegates to attend their party conventions. Primary voters and caucus participants choose delegates who will support their favored candidate at the convention. The party conventions, held in the summer before the November general election, formally nominate the winner of the primaries and caucuses. Would-be candidates crisscross the states that hold the earliest primaries, especially New Hampshire, which holds the country’s first primary, usually in mid-February. Most contenders also wage campaigns to win Iowa’s party caucuses, which are usually held in February as well. These states are widely regarded as indicators of a candidate’s chances in the overall primary process and in the general election. As a result, voters in the states with early primaries receive lavish attention from the primary contenders and the news media. In most states, only a party’s registered voters can vote in the party primary. Some states, however, have open primaries, which allow voters to wait until Election Day to choose the party primary that they want to vote in. The expense and physical strain of campaigning across the dispersed primary states winnows the field of candidates. Many drop out due to lack of finances or after poor showings in the early contests.

Party Conventions

Party conventions have historically been tense, dramatic events as candidates struggled to organize enough delegate support to win the nomination. At the 1924 Democratic Convention, for example, delegates voted more than 100 times before settling on a candidate. Because more states adopted the primary system in the second half of the 20th century, most recent Democratic and Republican conventions created little suspense over the selection of a candidate. Because the outcome is often known in advance, the nominating conventions are usually symbolic affairs, serving to publicize the party’s candidates and rally voter support in the months before the election.

Regardless of whether the party’s choice is evident in advance, party conventions follow a carefully scripted routine. Parties begin their conventions by writing a party platform that outlines their political program for the country. Drafting the platform and winning the convention’s support of this document marks an important milestone because it shows that the party has reached agreement between its competing factions.

After the platform has been approved by the convention, party leaders and invited guests make speeches to the convention delegates. During the speeches and party ceremonies, the potential candidates and their assistants roam through the convention to assess the strength of their support and to try to sway a majority of delegates to vote for their nomination. If a candidate has been particularly effective in the primary elections before the convention, he or she is likely to win the party nomination on the first or second convention vote. If the leading contender fails to win a majority of delegate votes and begins to lose votes on subsequent ballots, another contender may emerge as a compromise candidate.

Election Campaign

The campaign for the presidency traditionally begins in early September and ends on Election Day—the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. Candidates often complain about the length of the campaign period, which can require grueling 20-hour days of speechmaking and traveling. The candidates rely on party organizers to ensure support from loyal party followers, but it is equally important for candidates to raise issues that appeal to undecided voters and those in opposing parties. Most campaigns rely on national radio and television appearances and on press coverage to spread their candidate’s message to the nation. Since the 1960 election, nationally televised debates between presidential candidates have affected the outcome of most elections. Paid television advertisements have become increasingly important, sending campaign costs soaring. In 1996 the presidential campaigns of Democrat Bill Clinton and Republican Robert Dole spent a combined total of over $230 million, nearly half on television advertisements. In addition, the Republican and Democratic parties spent a combined total of over $30 million on advertisements backing their candidates.

Even as they spread campaign themes through national television and radio campaigns, the candidates also make hundreds of speeches in cities and towns across the country to appeal to specific groups of voters. Candidates make special attempts to curry favor in states with a large number of electoral votes, such as California, New York, and Texas. Because the candidate who wins the greatest number of popular votes in a state receives the entire electoral vote of that state, campaign strategists try to craft a plan to win in key populous states and to avoid wasting campaign resources on small or politically doubtful states.

Election Day and Inauguration

The nation usually knows who has won by the evening of Election Day or early the following morning. The formal balloting of the electoral college, however, does not take place until the first Monday after the second Wednesday of December, when the electors meet in each state. These results are transmitted to the secretary of the Senate and are counted publicly before a joint session of Congress on January 6. Under the original provisions of the Constitution, the president and vice president were inaugurated on March 4 of the year following their election. In 1933 the 20th Amendment went into effect, moving the inauguration date up to January 20. At the inaugural ceremony, the new president recites an oath: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

Who Becomes President

Although the Constitution specifies few qualifications for the presidency, as a practical matter the office is closed to most Americans. Today, a candidate who hopes to win the White House must have tens of millions of dollars and substantial political muscle if he or she hopes to make it through the arduous ordeal of presidential elections. The election process has changed through the course of American history, but the challenge has always been difficult, narrowing the field of viable candidates to a select few. The strongest contenders are usually former vice presidents, prominent senators, and governors of populous states, such as New York and California. Other strong candidates have come from the military, served as governors of small states, or otherwise distinguished themselves in remarkable ways. Nearly all serious candidates have enjoyed the backing of a major political party, although third-party candidates have made significant showings in a few elections. Ross Perot, for example, won 19 percent of the vote on the Reform Party ticket in the 1992 race, one of the strongest third-party showings in the 20th century. All successful presidential candidates have been men, and all but Democrat John F. Kennedy, a Catholic, were Protestant. An African American has never received a major party nomination, although Jesse Jackson’s relatively strong candidacies in 1984 and 1988 helped shape the debates in the Democratic primaries. No woman has ever made a bid for the White House. Geraldine Ferraro was the only woman who has run on a national ticket, winning the Democratic vice-presidential nomination in 1984.

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President of the United States

Primary Elections

Party Conventions

Election Campaign

Election Day and Inauguration

Who Becomes President