Incumbents enjoy several advantages over challengers—which, combined, explain (at least in part) why incumbents enjoy such high reelection rates. Name recognition is exactly what it sounds like—even though your average citizen often is not involved in politics, she can still generally remember her Senator’s name (or at least recognize the name) when voting. This is an advantage because if a voter knows nothing at ALL about the election or the candidate, she’s more likely to vote for the candidate she’s at least heard of before. “War chest” financing involves candidate taking in money from, say, every election cycle. Even though a candidate may solicit donations, there’s no guarantee that the candidate will use all of the money donated to him (perhaps the challenger is so weak there’s no need to spend quite as much money this year). Thus, the candidate can sit on the money he doesn’t use, and build a so-called “war chest.” In the event that a credible challenger comes along, the incumbent has reserves so that he can massively outspend the challenger. Finally, members of Congress do not have to pay for postage (the “franking” privilege), thus they can send out solicitations for free, whereas other candidates must pay.

On average, the more educated you are, the more likely it is that you will vote. Thus, a college graduate is more likely to vote than a high school dropout, and anyone with a PhD is almost certainly going to vote. Education is one in a series of socioeconomic factors that influence whether and how people vote.

The voter described in this problem is likely to be a Democrat as race, gender, and education all tend to be reliable indicators of political choice. Here, the voter is black, female, and highly educated—all of which indicate that she is more likely than not to be a Democrat. Since this is the case, it is also more likely that the voter would support decreased abortion regulations (that is, increased access to abortions) as the Democratic Party tends to view abortion access and availability more favorably than then Republicans.

Wedge issues are those policy standpoints on which the members and/or voters of a party disagree (important modern wedge issues include abortion and gun control). The lack of consensus caused by wedge issues makes a political party vulnerable because dissenting voters (especially those who feel strongly about the issue at hand) are susceptible to influences from the opposition. An astute opposition politician is sometimes able to take advantage of the divide caused by these wedge issues, using them as leverage to lure dissatisfied or concerned voters away from their preferred party to vote for the opposing side.

These two questions – Do I vote? And if yes, how? – may seem basic, but they are deceptively so. After all, voter turnout has decreased over the past several decades, with many people choosing not to vote at all. So, before any candidate and/or political party can even be considered, the first key question confronting any citizen is whether the act of voting would be rational or helpful. If an individual feels that voting is not likely to have much of an impact on his or her life, then they become much less likely to show up on Election Day.

When it comes to determining voter turnout, several prominent demographic factors can help predict the likelihood of a citizen’s absence or arrival at the polling place on Election Day. Among these key influences are the citizen’s age, gender, and educational level. Older people are much more likely to vote, while younger citizens are less frequently registered and vote much less often. As for gender, in today’s society women show up to vote at a slightly higher rate than their male counterparts. Education also plays a vital role – those citizens with higher-than-average educational qualifications have a much higher rate of voter turnout than those citizens who are less educationally connected.

In order to capture their party’s nomination, a candidate needs to harness and skillfully use 3 big vital factors: money, media attention, and momentum. Adequate funds are necessary to promote a candidate in all the many arenas modern society requires: television and social media advertisements must be produced, adept campaign staff must be found and hired, cross-state and/or cross-country travel expenses are a given – and these are just the beginning. In addition, media attention is crucial for a candidate to deliver his or her message and to communicate their policy stances and suitability to the voting public. Momentum is perhaps the most elusive of these necessitates; a good candidate needs to cleverly pace their campaign course, doling out money and media highlights on a consistent basis so that the candidate will remain constantly relevant and seem increasingly viable in the public eye.

As the first of the nation’s many primaries, the New Hampshire primary is widely seen as the ideal arena to showcase each candidates’ image, with the final vote counts revealing their respective appeal to the voting public. The Iowa caucus is a much more rigid venue; here, candidates are assessed primarily on their ability to earn votes– this serves as a sort of future predictor of how well each might do later on in a hypothetical general presidential election.

While all these other factors do play a role in shaping voters’ choices, long term studies have revealed that, overall, an individual’s party identification ultimately holds the most sway. Party allegiance provides an easy framework from which voters can view the complex political world and the often difficult choices differing policies present. Both parties typically keep steady positions on core issues over the years, so voters are often able to use candidates’ party affiliations as a shortcut of sorts to see where each nominee stands. Voters usually cling very tightly to their party identifications, rarely changing over the course of their lifetime, often because they see their party alignment as part of their wider social identity.

The mass media’s focus on the “horse race” in campaigns is actually rather unhelpful to policy voters. By overlooking the policies and platforms of each candidate, mass media coverage fails to provide voters with enough in-depth information to enable true policy voting. Overall, however, since the 1960s policy voting has become a much easier prospect for voters to engage in. Despite the continued evasiveness of some politicians in uncertain situations (a tendency that may be impossible to fully eliminate), the electoral process does provide ample incentive for candidates to be clearer about their policy stances, especially when there is sharp disagreement between one or more opponents.