Presidential Election Process Essay

Selecting the candidate for the presidential election has changed since the 1960’s in the US. Since the reforms occurred in the candidates were either ideologically extreme or not experienced, the party leaders had less power over who ran from their party and the media had more power, campaigns were longer and way more expensive, giving Iowa and New Hampshire disproportionate power, and campaigning over governing. (8) We use two types of presidential elections, the primary and the general presidential elections. They form a 2 step process that together determine the winner. The first is the primary election, this election is a party nomination for the political office. There are 4 types of primary election types: open primaries where anyone

New Hampshire and Iowa are among the states that hold the earliest primary elections and therefore have a big influence on the nominee that will be selected. Nominees have more time now to campaign and reach people and get their message across to try and get the voters on their side before the general election will take place. There has also been a decline in the choosing power of party leadership, which is referring to the party leaders having a say on who is going to be running for president. These elections are less party based and more candidate based, you don’t have to be the favorite man of the party to be their primary nominee, it is now the choice of the party members to see who has the better chance of getting the overall vote and voting for that person to run for president. Because of less power from the party leaders to choose the nominee, the media has major Coverage of the early selection of the nominees. Specifically it’s called “horse-race” coverage, due to the fact that the media doesn’t look at the substance of what they are covering, they are more interested in who’s in front, who’s behind, who is gaining the trust of the people, and who is losing