Ticket balance


In United States politics, balancing the ticket is a practice where a political candidate chooses a running mate, usually from the same party, with the goal of bringing more widespread appeal to the campaign. The term is most prominently used to describe the selection of the U.S. vice presidential nominee.
There are several means by which the ticket may be balanced. Someone who is from a different region than the candidate may be chosen as a running mate to provide geographic balance to the ticket. If the candidate is associated with a specific faction of the party, a running mate from a competing faction may be chosen so as to unify the party. Similarly, running mates may be chosen to provide ideological, age, or demographic balance.
In U.S. presidential elections, balancing the ticket was traditionally associated with the smoke-filled room cliché, but this changed in 1970 with reforms in the primary system resulting from the McGovern-Fraser Commission. According to Douglas Kriner of Boston University, the McGovern-Fraser reforms brought an end to traditional ticket balancing practices. Now, presidential candidates are less concerned with regional and ideological balance, says Kriner, and are more inclined to pick compatible running mates with extensive government experience.
Nelson Polsby and Aaron Wildavsky, two notable political scientists of the late 20th century, described ticket balancing as a way to maximize the number of voters that the candidates can appeal to through a broad range of characteristics:

History

In the earliest days of American presidential elections, the president and vice president were technically elected on the same Electoral College ballot. The person receiving the most electoral votes becoming the president and the person with the second most votes becoming the vice president. When this system proved unwieldy, the Twelfth Amendment was passed in 1804 providing that the Electoral College use different ballots for president and vice president.
Most elections before the American Civil War featured a Northerner paired with a Southerner or vice versa. After the Civil War, geographical balance between North and South became less critical but would remain a factor well into the 20th century, especially in the Democratic Party. In the 20th century, an increased interest in the Electoral College led many presidential candidates to choose vice presidential candidates from populous states with large numbers of electoral votes. It was hoped that voters in this state could be swayed by having a favorite son on the ticket.
Later in the 20th century, ideological balance became more prominent with a very liberal or conservative presidential candidate often paired with a more moderate vice presidential candidate or vice versa to bring more widespread appeal. Other factors came to prominence in the late 20th century such as gender, religion, age and other issues. The trend has continued in recent times, although it is less of a predictable science. In 1992, Bill Clinton of Arkansas, seen as a more moderate Democrat, chose the more liberal Al Gore of neighboring Tennessee as his running mate. However, they were both white Protestant southerners from the baby boomer generation, and most political analysts saw them as similar in political ideology. This brought little in the way of ticket balancing.
In 2000, Al Gore chose the centrist Joe Lieberman, a Jewish Democrat from Connecticut who had been one of the first people to criticize President Clinton for his scandal with Monica Lewinsky. Four years later, John Kerry of Massachusetts chose John Edwards of North Carolina, which was widely seen as an appeal to Southern voters who traditionally would not have supported a Northeasterner such as Kerry without the geographic balance that Edwards could bring. Also, Edwards, still serving his first term in the Senate, was regarded by many as an "outsider" with a youthful appeal; two characteristics that Kerry, a 60-year-old four-term senator, was unable to acquire.

Geographic balance

Geographic balance has played an important part of politics since the beginning of the country. Before the Civil War, a Northern candidate was almost always paired with a Southern running mate or vice versa. Since the Civil War, this level of geographical balancing is less critical, but still plays a big role. In modern times, voters in the South, Midwest, and Rocky Mountains region are less inclined to support Northeasterners and West Coasters without some sort of geographic balance and vice versa.
For example, in 1952 Dwight D. Eisenhower of New York chose Richard Nixon as his running mate in part because he was from California. In 1960, Nixon chose Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. of Massachusetts to blunt Kennedy's strength in New England. John F. Kennedy of Massachusetts chose Texan Lyndon B. Johnson to appeal to Southern voters.
In elections which are expected to be close, great concern is placed on a running mate's ability to appeal to voters in key states with critical numbers of votes in the Electoral College. In modern times, the United States is generally split along red state/blue state lines, but these lines are not absolute. Key "blue states" like Michigan and Minnesota could be swayed to shift support toward a Republican candidate under the right conditions. Likewise, key presidential "red states" such as North Carolina and Georgia may shift allegiances for the right ticket. A "favorite son" on the ticket from one of these states could garner enough support to swing it from one column to another. In 2016, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton chose Virginia Senator Tim Kaine partially to solidify the Democrats' hold on the former swing state.
The United States Constitution does not require a president and vice president to be from different states, but does demand some balance, because Electoral College voters cannot vote for two people from their state. For example, in the 2000 election, if Republican vice presidential nominee Dick Cheney, who lived in Texas, had not moved back to his home state of Wyoming and reestablished residency there, then the electors from Texas would not have been able to vote for both Texas Governor George W. Bush for president and Cheney for vice president, and because Texas's 32 electoral votes would have been decisive, no candidate would have received enough votes to become vice president and the Senate would have had to pick one of the top two vote-getters.

Democratic Party

Historically, the Democrats have often chosen one candidate from the North, and one from the South. This practice began in 1832 when Andrew Jackson, from Tennessee, selected Martin Van Buren, from New York. The practice fell out of favor after the American Civil War, but it became common again from the 1920s.
North-South ticket balance is practiced to a lesser extent by the Republicans, although what is more common is Northeast-Midwest or Northeast-West balance. The Republicans utilized this strategy in every presidential election from 1872 until 1924, and again from 1940 to 1972. It has used geographic balance less frequently since then, except for a brief resurgence in the 2010s.
Ideological balance is achieved when a candidate chooses a running mate from a different ideological strain to provide more widespread appeal. For example, a liberal candidate might want to choose a moderate or even a conservative running mate rather than another liberal in order to appeal to a broader base of the electorate. When liberal Democrat Michael Dukakis ran for president in 1988 he chose Lloyd Bentsen, a moderate, as his running mate, and the same applied in 2000 when Al Gore a fairly liberal Democrat, chose Joe Lieberman, a moderate Democrat. Similarly, John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate in 2008 allowed McCain, who many perceived as a moderate, to appeal to more conservative sectors of the Republican Party. Another example was in 2020 when Joe Biden, who was perceived as a moderate-liberal Democrat, selected Kamala Harris, who was perceived as more liberal and progressive than Biden. A running mate may be chosen from a separate party to appeal to swing voters or voters of the other party, creating a unity ticket.