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-'''"Tantamount to election"''' is a phrase to describe the situation in which one [[political party]] so dominates the [[demographics]] of a voting district that the [[primary election|primary]] or nomination within that party is the only decision that matters.<ref>[[Political science|Political scientist]] [[Larry Sabato]], ''e.g.'', uses the phrase "tantamount to election" in describing how "not a single Virginia Democrat nominated for statewide office in the primary was defeated in the general election for more than threescore years after the primary’s inception in 1905" (Sabato, quoted by Kenneth R. Plum, [http://www.kenplum.com/pdfs/apr30cnx.pdf The changing of power in the Commonwealth,] ''Reston Connection'', 2003 April 30 [accessed 2009 December 28]).</ref>
-The phrase originated in the American [[Solid South]] when and where the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]] was so weak or nonexistent that the [[general elections]] were mere formalities, the election having effectively been decided within the [[History of the Democratic Party (United States)#Civil War, Reconstruction, and the Gilded Age: 1854-1896|Democratic Party of the time and place]].<ref>Jackson Baker, [http://www.memphisflyer.com/TheDailyBuzz/archives/2003/11/06/jamieson-only-gop-hopeful-out-of-race-for-89 Jamieson, only GOP hopeful, out of race for 89,] ''Memphis Flyer Newsweekly'' (Contemporary Media, Inc.), 2003 November 6 (accessed 2009 December 28).  See also [[White primaries]].</ref> For example, after a stiff challenge by Republican-[[Populist Party (United States)|Populist]] nominee [[Murphy J. Foster#John N. Pharr|John N. Pharr]] in Louisiana's 1896 gubernatorial election, the triumphant Democrats rewrote the state constitution "to disenfranchise blacks, Republicans, and white Populists, [so that] the Democratic nomination was tantamount to election."<ref>[http://www.sos.louisiana.gov/tabid/389/Default.aspx Biosketch of William Wright Heard] on the Louisiana Secretary of State site (accessed 2009 December 28).</ref>
-The phrase "tantamount to election" may, nonetheless, be employed to describe an electoral situation in an overwhelmingly Republican area where candidates of the Democratic Party are up against very steep odds<ref>An early instance was [[James A. Garfield]]'s election to the [[U.S. House of Representatives]] from a district so Republican that the Republican nomination was considered "tantamount to election" (quoted from the [http://www.ohiojudicialcenter.gov/j_a_garfield.asp Garfield biosketch] on the Ohio Supreme Court site).</ref>—or any electoral situation wherein dominance by one party renders candidates of other parties irrelevant.<ref>The phrase "tantamount to election" appears in scores of Wikipedia articles. A few examples: [[Solid South]], [[ticket (election)]], Democrat [[Robert S. Calvert]], Republican [[Pete Hoekstra]]. See also Larry Sabato, ''The Democratic Party Primary in Virginia: Tantamount to Election No Longer'' (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1977), ISBN 0813907268 and ISBN 978-0813907260.</ref>
-==Notes==
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 [[Category:American English idioms]]
-[[Category:Political terms]]
+[[Category:History of the Southern United States]]
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+[[Category:Political terminology]]
-[[Category:Southern United States]]
+[[Category:Primary elections in the United States]]