What is the Invisible Primary and how important is it PDF

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Invisible Primary 15 marker...

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What is the Invisible Primary and how important is it? 15 marks

The invisible primary is when candidates chose to announce their intentions to run for presidency. It is a loosely defined period, not a fixed time period. It starts when the first candidate declares to run and ends when the primary and caucuses start. The reason for the Invisible primary is to raise funds, organize their campaign, take part in interviews and media events to gain name recognition to build momentum and support to prepare them for primaries. It’s important to gain name recognition and to start making it clear that they would be good at the job of being a president. Money is a big factor as they can begin to publicize their campaign and become more well known. For the 2016 election, Donald Trump was well known as a business person and a TV person from his show ‘The Apprentice’, which made him stand out from the other candidates and because of his wealth, he was able to start appearing on talk shows, interviews and media events which would give and advantage before the Primaries and Caucuses, against the other candidates. Hilary Clinton in the 2016 election was also very well known, as she has been the first lady, secretary of state and has been senator for New York. She had plenty of political experience and because of this she can use the Invisible Primary to show why she would also be good at the presidency. However even though political experience should be an important extra quality, it is sometimes not the case for who leads the invisible primary. Donald Trump had no political experience and was competing against Jed Bush who was state governor of Florida for 8 years and son and brother of two other presidents, so had a lot of knowledge of president roles, but came 6th in the leading positions and Donald Trump came first. The Invisible primary is a good prediction who will win the nomination in the primary and caucuses. Usually the front runner of the invisible primaries wins, which can indicate to other candidates to drop out and also means party members have an indication on what would be a wasted vote and who is more likely to gain the most votes as the nominee. For example, was front running with 51.6% and became the party nominee. However, this is not always the case because second and third leading can end up winning the primary and caucuses. For the 2008 election, Clinton was front leader and it was clear she would win but Barack Obama ended up being the Democrat nominee and the President. For the 2016 election, Clinton also lead the Invisible Primary, starting with 61% on the opinion bills but ending 51.6%. Although she won she still lost momentum and support. Lastly the invisible primaries have become increasingly important through the media, and brings a lot of effect on becoming popular for less well-known candidates. For example, Barack Obama became more known to the people when he appeared on Oprah’s talk show, which gained a lot of media attention and popularity to create support and momentum, which was a big factor of how he became so well-known and liked. Donald Trump also gained a lot of media coverage. However, the invisible primary is become much more visible than invisible as media is used across the nation and so it becomes clear to what is going on in the background.

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