Vice presidential candidates in the American presidential elections: strategies for selection and effects

Abstract

American vice presidential candidates are chosen for several reasons. Some of these rationales are easy to be recognized, while others belong to the cockles of the heart of the presidential candidates. Social scientists and journalists agree about the factors that are more essential: the vice presidential (VP) nominee’s capacity of balancing the ideological and personal characteristics of the presidential candidate and the “native son” effect, namely the guarantee that the VP nominee would carry his/her own state. These strategies are often combined and they work at different electoral levels: the first one has usually a national or macro-regional significance while the second is crucial in the battleground states.

This research is divided into two sections: the first one investigates the “balancing the ticket” strategy, offering an overview of about one century of presidential races. The second aims to verify the VP nominee’s effect in his/her home state. The results will confirm that there have been several running mates who have been selected in order to “balance the ticket” but also that the vice president nominee’s effect in the home states has been quite poor.