{{Short description|Political term}} {{other uses|Favorite Son (disambiguation) {{!}} Favorite Son (disambiguation)}} {{confused|Fortunate Son}} {{confused|Favourite Daughter (song)}} [[File:ConnallyPresident.jpg | thumb | right | Favorite son banner from 1980 for John Connally]] '''Favorite son''' (or '''favorite daughter''') is a political term referring to a presidential candidate, either one that is nominated by a state but considered a nonviable candidate or a politician whose electoral appeal derives from their native state, rather than their political views. The technique was widely used in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
== Description == At the quadrennial American national political party conventions, a state delegation sometimes nominates a presidential 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.<ref name="pp19280112">{{cite news |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1144&dat=19280112&id=HMsaAAAAIBAJ&pg=1498,440704&hl=en |title=How 'Favorite Son' Politics Works |date=January 12, 1928 |newspaper=The Pittsburgh Press |via=Google News Archive Search}}</ref> The nominated individual is known as a ''favorite son'' or ''favorite daughter''. The terms are also used for politicians whose electoral appeal derives from their native state, rather than their political views;{{r|meiklejohn19600703}}<ref name="ap19680529">{{Cite news |date=May 29, 1968 |title=Smathers Gets Favorite Son Candidate Nod |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1356&dat=19680529&id=pWtPAAAAIBAJ&pg=2863,4751547&hl=en |access-date=2023-09-28 |work=Ocala Star-Banner |pages=1 |via=Google News Archive Search |agency=Associated Press}}</ref> for example, in the United States, a presidential candidate will usually win the support of their home state(s).<ref name="lawrence19390805">{{cite news |last=Lawrence |first=David |date=August 5, 1939 |title=Favorite Son Groups Will be Numerous at 1940 Convention of Democrats |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1915&dat=19390804&id=PE81AAAAIBAJ&pg=1038,2634598&hl=en |access-date=May 11, 2026 |newspaper=The Day (New London) |pages=4 |via=Google News Archive Search}}</ref>
Serious candidates usually avoided campaigning in favorite sons' states. If a party's leader in a state—usually a governor or senator{{r|lawrence19390805}}—was unsure of whom to support, supporting the favorite son could allow the state party to avoid disputes. Conversely, a party leader who has chosen a candidate might become a favorite son to keep other candidates' campaigns out of the state,{{r|upi19710920}}{{r|pp19280112}} demonstrate political leadership in the state,{{r|lawrence19390805}} or prevent a rival local politician from becoming a favorite son.<ref name="meiklejohn19600703">{{Cite news |last=Meiklejohn |first=Don |date=July 3, 1960 |title=Favorite Son Idea is Devised to Put State in Strong Position at Convention |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1356&dat=19600703&id=oIFPAAAAIBAJ&pg=1939,3967594&hl=en |work=Ocala Star-Banner |page=22 |via=Google News Archive Search |agency=Perry News Services}}</ref> The favorite son may explicitly state that the candidacy is not viable,{{r|ap19680529}} or that the favorite son is not a candidate at all.{{r|pp19280112}} The favorite son may hope to receive the vice-presidential nomination,{{r|ap19680529}} Cabinet post or other job, increase support for the favorite son's region or policies,{{r|tucker19600130}} or just the publicity from being nominated at the convention.{{r|upi19710920}}
== History == The technique was widely used in the 19th and early 20th centuries.<ref name="tucker19600130">{{Cite news |last=Tucker |first=Ray |date=January 30, 1960 |title=How Term 'Favorite Son' Got Started in Politics |pages=4,7 |work=The Free Lance-Star |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1298&dat=19600130&id=v91LAAAAIBAJ&pg=7345,1724319&hl=en |access-date=2023-09-28 |via=Google News Archive Search}}</ref> Sometimes it proved useful to emphasize a candidate's ties to multiple states, as in 1860's "Lincoln and Liberty" campaign song.
Since nationwide campaigns by candidates and binding primary elections have replaced brokered conventions, the technique has fallen out of use,<ref name="upi19710920">{{Cite news |date=September 20, 1971 |title=No Demo Favorite Sons |pages=5A |work=The Deseret News |agency=UPI |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=336&dat=19710920&id=vbVSAAAAIBAJ&pg=7269,4614679&hl=en |via=Google News Archive Search}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |first=Byron E. |last=Shafer |url=https://archive.org/details/bifurcatedpoliti00shaf |url-access=registration |page=[https://archive.org/details/bifurcatedpoliti00shaf/page/71 71] |quote=Favorite sons were already, almost necessarily, in decline as the nomination moved outside the convention in the prereform years. |title=Bifurcated Politics: Evolution and Reform in the National Party Convention |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=9780674072565 |date=1988}}</ref> as party rule changes in the early 1970s required candidates to have nominations from more than one state.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3Y7NCgAAQBAJ&q=%22favorite+son%22+candidacies&pg=PA202 |title=Elections A to Z |first1=Dave |last1=Tarr |first2=Bob |last2=Benenson |date=22 October 2013 |publisher=CQ Press |isbn=9781506331508 |via=Google Books}}</ref>
A particularly notable instance of a politician whose electoral appeal derives from their native state occurred in 1984, when challenger Walter Mondale lost 49 of 50 states against popular incumbent Ronald Reagan, winning only his home state of Minnesota and Washington, D.C.{{Citation needed|date=January 2026}}
==See also== * List of major-party United States presidential candidates who lost their home state * Home state advantage
==References== {{reflist}}
==Bibliography== * {{cite book |last1=Elliot |first1=Jeffrey M. |last2=Ali |first2=Sheikh R. |title=The Presidential-Congressional Political Dictionary |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jk-yy8p1FREC&q=%22Favorite+son%22&pg=PA10 |publisher=Wildside Press LLC |date=1 September 2007 |isbn=9781434492340 |via=Google Books}} * {{cite book |last1=Harris |first1=Joseph P. |title=California Politics |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zQuoAAAAIAAJ&q=%22Favorite+son%22+politics&pg=PA43 |publisher=Stanford University Press |date=1961 |isbn=9780804709361 |edition=3rd |via=Google Books}} * {{cite book |last=Kamarck |first=Elaine C. |title=Primary Politics: How Presidential Candidates Have Shaped the Modern Nominating System |url=https://archive.org/details/primarypoliticsh0000kama |url-access=registration |page=[https://archive.org/details/primarypoliticsh0000kama/page/153 153] |quote=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. |publisher=Brookings Institution Press |date=1 December 2009 |via=Internet Archive}} * {{cite book |last1=Sabato |first1=Larry J. |last2=Ernst |title=Encyclopedia of American Political Parties and Elections |first2=Howard R. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d-379E2mFmYC&q=%22Favorite+son%22&pg=PA144 |publisher=Infobase Publishing |date=14 May 2014 |isbn=9781438109947 |via=Google Books}} * {{cite book |last=Safire |first=William |title=Safire's Political Dictionary |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c4UoX6-Sv1AC&q=%22Favorite+son%22&pg=PA237 |publisher=Oxford University Press |date=14 November 2017 |isbn=9780195343342 |via=Google Books}}
Category:Political terminology of the United States Category:Political terminology Category:Political concepts Category:Political people