Political base

In politics, a candidate or party's base or core support refers to the voters who will always support them for elected office. Base voters are very unlikely to vote for an opposing party or candidate, regardless of the specific views each candidate holds. In the United States, this is typically because high-level candidates must hold the same stances on key issues as a party's base in order to gain the party's nomination and thus be guaranteed ballot access. In the case of legislative elections, base voters often prefer to support their party's candidate against an otherwise appealing opponent in order to strengthen their party's chances of gaining a majority in the legislature.

See also

• Split-ticket voting
• Straight-ticket voting
• Voting bloc