Describes how election campaigns for the office of president of the United States have changed from the time of George Washington to the Bush vs. Kerry campaign of 2004.

In his latest book, Presidential Elections and Majority Rule, Edward Foley asks how the American electoral system can better represent the people. What kind of winner truly reflects the nation's votes: the plurality winners of winner-takes-all elections, as currently used, or the majority-preferred winners of a reformed system? How do third-party candidates affect American presidential elections? What, if anything, would change in a two-candidate run-off?And how can electoral reform be implemented without sowing chaos? Ultimately, Foley outlines a solution in which the Electoral College can be restored to its original majoritarian ideals through state law rather than Constitutional amendment.

American presidents have come from all walks of life. Some have had a lot of experience campaigning for office, while others have had almost none. In fact, the nation's first president—George Washington—didn't even run for office. He was chosen by a group of electors in 1789. More than 200 years later, campaigning for the United States' highest office takes years to plan, years to carry out, and a lot of money. Candidates must be prepared to rally supporters at live events across the nation, give hundreds of interviews and speeches, and create sophisticated communication strategies. No longer can candidates simply let their records speak for themselves. They must engage their competition—and the American voter—in vigorous debate 24/7, using robust advertising, strategic appearances, and social media messaging. Follow the changes in presidential campaign strategies from the nation's early leaders to twenty-first century contenders. Meet the personalities that have defined the office, from George Washington to Barack Obama, the nation's first African American president. Learn how strategies to pick candidates, raise money, run campaigns, sway voters, and elect leaders have evolved. And see if you can predict what lies ahead for Americans in upcoming presidential elections.

The CQ Press Guide to U.S. Elections is a comprehensive, two-volume reference providing information on the U.S. electoral process, in-depth analysis on specific political eras and issues, and everything in between. Thoroughly revised and infused with new data, analysis, and discussion of issues relating to elections through 2014, the Guide will include chapters on: Analysis of the campaigns for presidency, from the primaries through the general election Data on the candidates, winners/losers, and election returns Details on congressional and gubernatorial contests supplemented with vast historical data. Key Features include: Tables, boxes and figures interspersed throughout each chapter Data on campaigns, election methods, and results Complete lists of House and Senate leaders Links to election-related websites A guide to party abbreviations

This reference work provides complete returns for the presidential elections by state and county for the period 1788 to 1860. Available nowhere else in one volume, this information has been pieced together through years of research of original sources of many kinds. The election returns include each candidate's name, party, number of votes and percentage of votes. Explanatory footnotes and source information accompany the returns, as well as maps that show presidential election districts for those states and elections when presidential elections were so conducted. Also included are a history of voting for presidential electors and the influence of political parties on the electors, as well as listings of election dates, county names (past and present), party abbreviations used in the book, and counties created following each state's first popular election of electors.

From the nation’s leading expert, an indispensable analysis of key threats to the integrity of the 2020 American presidential election As the 2020 presidential campaign begins to take shape, there is widespread distrust of the fairness and accuracy of American elections. In this timely and accessible book, Richard L. Hasen uses riveting stories illustrating four factors increasing the mistrust. Voter suppression has escalated as a Republican tool aimed to depress turnout of likely Democratic voters, fueling suspicion. Pockets of incompetence in election administration, often in large cities controlled by Democrats, have created an opening to claims of unfairness. Old-fashioned and new-fangled dirty tricks, including foreign and domestic misinformation campaigns via social media, threaten electoral integrity. Inflammatory rhetoric about “stolen” elections supercharges distrust among hardcore partisans. Taking into account how each of these threats has manifested in recent years—most notably in the 2016 and 2018 elections—Hasen offers concrete steps that need to be taken to restore trust in American elections before the democratic process is completely undermined.

For half a century, conventional wisdom has held that Kennedy ran a brilliant campaign while Nixon committed blunder after blunder but was this truly the case? Kallina examines the facts and myths surrounding the 1960 Presidential election in his exploration of one of the closest Presidential races in American history.

In this new and updated volume, the contributors examine the phenomena of presidential swing states in the 2016 presidential election. They explore the reasons why some states and, now counties are the focus of candidate attention, are capable of voting for either of the major candidates, and are decisive in determining who wins the presidency.

This book explains the 2016 presidential election through a strategic focus. In the primaries both parties faced challenges from insurgent outsiders riding waves of populist fervor in the electorate, but only the Democrats were able to steer the nomination into the hands of their establishment favorite. Why weren’t Republican elites able to stop Donald Trump from hijacking their party’s nomination? Why did Hillary Clinton come up short on Election Day despite the fact that nearly everyone expected her to win after her opponent ran a haphazard campaign plagued by scandal after scandal? The research presented here argues that the Clinton campaign conducted the nearly perfect execution of the wrong electoral strategy, costing her the Electoral College and her chance to become America’s first female president.