Results of a historical presidential nomination contest

Results of a historical presidential nomination contest

POL 280—The 2020 Presidential Primary

Professor Arbour

Paper Assignment

Final Paper (Due Monday, May 18^th at 12 noon)

Write a paper that examines the results of a historical presidential nomination contest. I have assigned each of you a specific year and party (see back side of this paper).

Your paper should explain the biggest reasons why the nominee won their party’s nomination contest—you should have a one sentence thesis statement that explains this in the introduction to your paper.

Your paper should make this explanation about why the nominee won in context of the key themes of our course—the relationship of nominees to their party networks, the role of endorsements and fund raising, the “momentum” gained by performances in the early states, and the rhetorical arguments the candidate made to members of his/her party.

In writing your paper, you should address the following topics:

• The relationship of the nominee to his or her party.
• The number and amount of endorsements from party leaders the nominee received and how that compared to other candidates in that year’s nomination contest.
• The amount of money the nominee raised compared to other candidates in that year’s nomination contest.
• The key events of the nomination process.
• The ability or inability of the nominee to build “momentum” in the Iowa, New Hampshire, and other early contests.
• How the nominee positioned himself ideologically in relationship to his party (to the right, to the left, in the middle of the party, etc.)

Excellent papers will not only address each these different elements but will also explore how the different elements relate to one another, by assessing how one or more elements affect the others. For example, a paper may assess how the support of party leaders helped a candidate stand out to win in the early states, boosting their chances in the later states.

Students will write a 2,000-2,500 word (8-10 page) paper based on their research. The final paper is due at 12 noon on Monday, May 18^th in our classroom.

The paper must be double spaced with 1 inch margins.  Proper in-text (parenthetical) citations in APA format are required, as is an APA-formatted references page at the end of the paper. (The references page does not count toward the paper minimum or maximum length.)  For information on APA style, check out the Library’s webpage at:  http://guides.lib.jjay.cuny.edu/content.php?pid=136486&sid=1169197.