Editing Running mate (section)

{{Short description|Person on a joint ticket during an election}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{Globalize|article|USA|2name=the United States|date=December 2010}}
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A '''running mate''' is a [[person]] running together with another person on a joint [[Ticket (election)|ticket]] during an [[election]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=RUNNING MATE {{!}} definition in the Cambridge English Dictionary |url=https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/running-mate |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20201101021443/https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/running-mate |archive-date=2020-11-01 |access-date=2025-04-17 |website=dictionary.cambridge.org |language=en-US}}</ref> The term is most often used in reference to the person in the [[subordinate]] position (such as the vice presidential candidate running with a presidential candidate) but can also properly be used when referring to both candidates.

Running mates may be chosen, by custom or by law, to [[Ticket balance|balance the ticket]] geographically, ideologically, or personally; examples of such a custom for each of the criteria are, geographically, in [[Elections in Nigeria|Nigerian general elections]], in which a presidential candidate from the predominantly [[Christianity|Christian]] south is typically matched with a [[Vice President of Nigeria|vice presidential]] candidate from the predominantly [[Islam|Muslim]] north, and vice versa, ideologically, the Brazilian general elections in [[2010 Brazilian general election|2010]] and [[2014 Brazilian general election|2014]], where [[Dilma Rousseff]] of the left-wing [[Workers' Party (Brazil)|Workers' Party]] ran alongside [[Michel Temer]] of the center-right [[Brazilian Democratic Movement|Brazilian Democratic Movement Party]], and, personally, the [[2016 Bulgarian presidential election]], in which both candidates who went on to the [[two-round voting|second round of voting]], [[Rumen Radev]] and [[Tsetska Tsacheva]], had running mates of the opposite gender. The objective is to create a more widespread appeal for the ticket and the results can range from assisting the resulting pair of candidates in appealing to a larger base of people to deterring voters who were initially inclined to vote for the running candidate, but may have been put off by the choice of the running mate.

The term is usually used in countries in which the offices of [[President (government title)|president]] and [[Vice President|vice president]] are both directly elected on the same ticket, in reference to a prospective vice president. However, there are countries, such as the Philippines and (nominally) [[Cyprus]], in which the president and vice-president are elected on separate tickets, and frequently, this results in them being from different political parties – indeed, when the Philippine vice-presidential position was restored in 1987, only twice were the president and vice-president elected from the same ticket, in [[2004 Philippine presidential election|2004]] and [[2022 Philippine presidential election|2022]]. Further, in other countries, such as [[Botswana]] and [[Venezuela]], the vice-president is legally appointed by the president in all cases (unlike, for instance, the United States, in which the president appoints a vice-president only in case of a vacancy, or Taiwan, in which the president nominates candidates for vice-president in case of a vacancy and the [[Legislative Yuan|Legislative Council]] elects one of them to fill the vacancy).

In cases of both separate elections and appointments, the president and vice-president are not considered running mates because they are not elected on the same ticket.