How are Vice President candidates chosen?

Question

I'm not real political savy. I know we have people running for president and after a little while there will be a few of them left and all of a sudden though they will also have a Vice President candidate with them. How is it decided whom that will be?

Answer 1

by the the candidate that won the primary.

Answer 2

Technically, they are selected by the delegates at the party's national convention (just like the presidential candidates are).

With only a handful of exceptions in the 172 years of political party conventions, the convention has gone with the choice of the presidential nominee.

There is no formal process for this selection, but there is an informal process that most of the recent presidential candidates follow.

Sometime in late March/early April, the likely presidential nominee will designate a small committee to run the "search" process. Basically, the committee will compile a list of Senators, Governors, and Representatives (and other senior party leaders). This committee will then narrow this list based on criteria chosen by the campaign. The first cut will probably be to 50-60 people.

The campaign will then contact these people to determine if they are interested in being considered. If they are, they will probably get a questionaire of sorts (less concerned with policy questions and more concerned with tell us what you have managed to keep secret that could be embarassing). They will also be asked to sign a release authorizing a thorough background check.

After the background check is done, the candidate will be presented with a list of who is interested and who isn't. If the candidate is truly interested in one of those who has declined, that person might be contacted by someone with sufficient pull to convince that person to reconsider. At some point, the candidate will choose a list of 3-10 to meet with personally. Candidates have gotten better at making these initial meetings more discreet and less of a media event.

At some point, the candidate might narrow the list down further and do a second interview or the candidate might choose based on the one interview. Obviously, choosing a vice-presidential candidate is based in part on political criteria (can the v.p. candidate shore up a weakness -- geographical, experiential, or ideological -- in the presidential candidate) and in part on compatibility.

Typically, sometime in late June or early July, the presidential candidate will announce their choice.

As the list of sources for the v.p. candidate indicates, it is not necessary that the candidate be among those who ran in the primaries for president. Most of the time, the v.p. candidate did not run for president.

Answer 3

They are selected by the candidate who wins his party's nomination.

Then, during the political convention for that candidate's party, the delegates from that party vote on their presidential candidate's selection for vice president and approve him.

That makes it official that a given person will run for vice president.

Answer 4

The Presidential Nominee winning the Nomination for their Party, chooses the Vice President they feel will give them the best chance of capturing The White House.

Sometimes they choose one of their former opponents, and other times they choose total nut jobs. (Reference Ross Perot 1992)

Answer 5

definite, after the candidate receives the nomination from their celebration (republican or democrat) the candidate chooses who their operating mate will be. They were voted on seperately many years in the past, i'm no longer confident even as that changed into replaced.

Answer 6

I think the top candidate, the one who gets the nominee picks them. I'm sure his team helps advise him.

Answer 7

They are selected by the presidential candidate.