Favorite son

Favorite son (or favorite daughter) is a political term.

At the quadrennial American national political party conventions, a state delegation sometimes nominates a candidate from the state, or less often from the state's region, who is not a viable candidate in the view of other delegations, and votes for this candidate in the initial ballot. The technique allows state leaders to negotiate with leading candidates in exchange for the delegation's support in subsequent ballots.^[1] The technique was widely used in the 19th and early 20th centuries.^[2] Since nationwide campaigns by candidates and binding primary elections have replaced brokered conventions, the technique has fallen out of use,^[3]^[4] as party rule changes in the early 1970s required candidates to have nominations from more than one state.^[5]
A politician whose electoral appeal derives from their native state, rather than their political views is called a "favorite son".^[6]^[7] For example, in the United States, a presidential candidate will usually win the support of their home state(s).^[8]
Especially in parliamentary systems,^[9] a "favorite son" is a party member to whom the party leadership is likely to assign a prominent role, for example, Paul Martin while Jean Chrétien was the Prime Minister of Canada, or Gordon Brown while Tony Blair was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.^{[citation needed]}

References[]

^ "How 'Favorite Son' Politics Works". The Pittsburgh Press. January 12, 1928 – via Google News Archive Search.
^ "How Term 'Favorite Son' Got Started in Politics". The Free Lance-Star. January 30, 1960 – via Google News Archive Search.
^ "No Demo Favorite Sons". The Deseret News. September 20, 1971 – via Google News Archive Search.
^ Shafer, Byron E. (1988). Bifurcated Politics: Evolution and Reform in the National Party Convention. Harvard University Press. p. 71. ISBN 9780674072565. Favorite sons were already, almost necessarily, in decline as the nomination moved outside the convention in the prereform years.
^ Tarr, Dave; Benenson, Bob (22 October 2013). Elections A to Z. CQ Press. ISBN 9781506331508 – via Google Books.
^ "Favorite Son Idea is Devised to Put State in Strong Position at Convention". Ocala Star-Banner. July 3, 1960 – via Google News Archive Search.
^ "Smathers Gets Favorite Son Candidate Nod". Ocala Star-Banner. May 29, 1968 – via Google News Archive Search.
^ "Favorite Son Groups Will be Numerous at 1940 Convention of Democrats". The Day (New London). August 4, 1939 – via Google News Archive Search.
^ But not only in them: in Lenin's will, Nikolai Bukharin was termed "the Party's favourite son": Randazzo, Francesco, Zarstvo and Communism: Italian Diplomacy in Russia in the Age of Soviet Communism. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2019, p. 110.

Elliot, Jeffrey M.; Ali, Sheikh R. (1 September 2007). The Presidential-Congressional Political Dictionary. Wildside Press LLC. ISBN 9781434492340 – via Google Books.
Harris, Joseph P. (1961). California Politics (3rd ed.). Stanford University Press. ISBN 9780804709361 – via Google Books.
Kamarck, Elaine C. (1 December 2009). Primary Politics: How Presidential Candidates Have Shaped the Modern Nominating System. Brookings Institution Press. p. 153 – via Internet Archive. To further understand why modern nominating conventions are so dull, we need to look beyond the candidate-focus of the delegates: namely, to the fact that convention delegates elected to represent "uncommitted" or a favorite-son candidate have all but disappeared.
Sabato, Larry J.; Ernst, Howard R. (14 May 2014). Encyclopedia of American Political Parties and Elections. Infobase Publishing. ISBN 9781438109947 – via Google Books.
Safire, William (14 November 2017). Safire's Political Dictionary. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195343342 – via Google Books.