Essay On National Party Convention

The national party convention was made to give each political party a chance every four years to choose its candidates for president and vice president to represent the entire party in the upcoming presidential election. The convention is also for the party to complete its platform for the candidate for his or her race. Since this convention is held once every four years, potential candidates are now going through different media outlets to bring up support for their campaigns before the national convention is held. The national convention gives voters a chance, through primaries and caucuses, to bring enough votes for certain candidates to represent the political party the convention is for . The convention first came about a few years after the Corrupt Bargain of
This bargain was an alleged alliance between John Quincy Adams, who was running for president, and Henry Clay, at the time speaker of the house, where Adams promised Clay position of secretary of state if he persuaded his people in the House of Representatives to vote for Adams. This caused Americans to become weary of the elites, fearing that average voters would not be represented in the elections, so the first national convention was held in 1832. Over the years, though, the convention has adapted to American’s wants and needs, according to Living Democracy, changes were made after the 1968 election, when Hubert Humphrey, Eugene McCarthy, and Robert F. Kennedy were all up for election. While Humphrey stayed out of the primaries, Kennedy won over McCarthy, but still ended up losing to Humphrey for the nomination from the Democratic party; Richard Nixon won the presidential election in the end. This cause the creation of primaries and caucuses. Primaries and caucuses are held so all voters can go and cast their vote for their desired party’s candidates, accept unaffiliated voters; until recently. Voter turnout and