I stay out of the political fray on social media. It’s not that I don’t have convictions about the best (or lesser of two evils) candidate, but I prefer one-on-one conversations that are more respectful in dialogue. But, I have not missed voting in a Presidential Election since casting my vote for the losing candidate (Gerald Ford) in 1976 after he had served as Vice President and then President following Nixon’s resignation due to the Watergate scandal. He lost to Jimmy Carter with a margin of 1,678,069 Popular Votes and 297/240 Electoral Votes. Carter’s Georgia roots and Southern Baptist “Born Again” Christianity won over many Republicans evangelicals that election cycle.

However, a Washington Post article credited Carter for starting the lengthy campaign trend following this year’s election. “He [Carter] announced his candidacy for the 1976 presidential race in late 1974. Previously, candidates spent far less time on the campaign trail. Dwight D. Eisenhower, for example, only began campaigning full-time in June 1952, shortly after resigning from his role as NATO commander. He did not resign from his position as president of Columbia University until after his victory.”¹

This lengthy campaign process requires more financial resources, with much going to media saturation. “In a record-setting election season, Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz, spent nearly $1.4 billion on political ads in their bid for the White House, according to a report from ad analytics firm AdImpact. This staggering figure means that the Harris-Walz campaign, along with Democratic allies, outspent former President Donald Trump and Republicans by almost $460 million, as per a Fox News report.”²

The amount of money spent on a Presidential campaign is obscene! How could this be remedied? There are no easy answers because too many people benefit from the billions of dollars spent in our national elections every two years. However, a shorter campaign season might limit the need for excessive media, robocalls/texts, and postal advertising while providing a level playing ground for worthy candidates who don’t have deep-pocket contributors or PACs. Living in Iowa, which holds the first presidential caucus in the union, we receive intense media attention from all candidates a year before the general election.

Other countries limit the campaign season to months. This week, a Washington Post questioned why U.S. elections are so long when neighboring and allied nations can have short campaign seasons, giving this information:

Mexico – begins 93 days before the election and ends three days before — a required end-of-campaign cool-down
Canada – a minimum of 36 days, and they traditionally don’t run much longer.
Britain – the official campaign period is 25 weekdays or roughly five weeks.
France – campaigns last two weeks before the first ballot and end the Friday before the Sunday elections.
Australia – mandates that an election must be held on a Saturday between 33 and 58 days after the calling for elections.
Israel -campaigns run for the 101 days before election day. ³

The current length of campaigns and the negative attack ads are some of the factors that lead to the polarization of our citizenry. A report from the Polarization Research Lab compiled studies in the last two decades on the effects of negative campaigning. They summarized that “beyond being generally unhelpful for attackers, there is a growing consensus in political science that negative campaigning is detrimental to the American social fabric and democracy writ large.”⁴ These attacks reduce trust in the effectiveness and satisfaction of the government, causing voters to question the legitimacy of political institutions in general while engendering troubling stereotypes related to gender and race.

I have little hope that such a reform will take place, but it is obvious that we need some serious changes in our election process. It should not be a partisan concern. We need to do better! Can there be a grassroots movement to effect change?

1. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/11/03/us-election-vote-long-campaigns/ ↩︎
2. https://www.livemint.com/news/us-news/us-polls-2024-kamala-harris-campaign-spends-nearly-1-4-billion-on-ads-in-failed-election-bid-against-donald-trump-11730945491707.html ↩︎
3. https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/11/03/us-election-vote-long-campaigns/ ↩︎
4. https://polarizationresearchlab.org/the-ineffectiveness-of-negative-campaigning/  ↩︎