The Risks and Rewards of Selecting Vice Presidential Nominees

Abstract

This research focuses on the effectiveness of employing political maneuvers meant to target a specific segment of the electorate in order to acquire their support. As political polarization increases in American politics, it forces cleavages between subgroups within the electorate that campaigns and candidates must address. In an effort to better understand the effectiveness of these targeted appeals, I examine the risks and rewards associated with selecting vice presidential running mates in an effort to target subgroups within the party who are otherwise likely disenfranchised by the party's presidential nominee. Previous studies which attempt to address the influence of vice presidential nominees on voters treat vice presidential candidates in the aggregate, either pooling them within each election year and/or across years, and the results are mixed. Some research finds that vice presidential nominees have minimally positive influences on voters while other evidence depicts vice presidential candidates as simply not impacting voters. However in my research, I argue that by design existing studies fail to adequately depict the influence of vice presidential candidates. Instead I advocate for an approach that focuses on the electoral risks and rewards of targeting specific factions within the constituency. Through this reappraisal of the field, I believe we gain a more solid understanding of the role vice presidential candidates play in presidential elections and perhaps most importantly the effectiveness of utilizing campaign techniques which wish mobilize specific subgroups within the electorate.