RACE FOR THE WHITE HOUSE, PART II: FIRST IN THE NATION

Decision: 2012

Primaries and caucuses choose delegates to the national party conventions Delegates choose the party

candidates or nominee

Caucuses: people assemble in groups to support their candidate They try to sway others to

join their group

  Primaries: people vote for

their favorite candidate

Primary Elections

Two types of primaries: Open Primaries: EVERYONE CAN

VOTE!!! Closed Primaries: ONLY party

members vote (registered Democrats vote in Democratic primaries, while Republicans vote in Republican primaries)

First in the Nation

January: Iowa Caucuses and the New Hampshire Primaries Iowa and New Hampshire are

important for building momentum They are the “first in the nation”

primary and caucus elections The problem with these states is that

they aren’t representative of America Other states HATE the fact that Iowa and

New Hampshire always go first

Frontloading and Compression

States like Florida and Michigan try to leapfrog Iowa and New Hampshire, who will move their primary earlier and earlier to stay first!

Frontloading: the act of a state moving its primary earlier and earlier in a calendar year 1976: Primaries STARTED in February 2008: The Republican primaries were

OVER by March 2

Frontloading and Compression

Compression: The act of states moving their primaries closer and closer together! Compression means primaries are generally

over very fast!

1976: Jimmy Carter won Iowa on January 27. New Hampshire: February 24

2000: Al Gore won Iowa on January 24. His second win came on February 1, then February 5, and then February 29

2004: John Kerry won Iowa on January 19. His second win came on January 27, then February 3, then February 7, 8, 10, 14, 17, 24, 26 and March 2

2008: 6 primaries in January and 23 by February 5!

Super Tuesday

Super Tuesday: the date in which the most number of states hold primary elections. This is the BEST opportunity to defeat

your primary election opponents Super Tuesday is the day where the

most convention delegates can be won Super Tuesday is MOST LIKELY the day

Americans find out who the two candidates for president will be

Thought on Life

Please respond to the following prompt in your civics notebook: Many people argue that we should do

away with primary elections and caucuses altogether and move to a national primary. Some people argue that Super Tuesday is already a de facto national primary.

Should we eliminate primary elections and have a national primary?