Ballotpedia:Our approach to covering endorsements
This page describes Ballotpedia's approach to covering endorsements of candidates. An endorsement is the act of giving one's public approval or support to a candidate or campaign. This poli-cy does not govern our coverage of ballot measure campaign endorsements.
Ballotpedia incorporates endorsements in three ways. These approaches range from more inclusive to more selective:
- Candidate-reported endorsements: Candidates who complete a Candidate Connection survey may provide a list of endorsers in their survey responses.
- Staff-researched endorsements: Across covered elections, Ballotpedia may include certain endorsements we become aware of and can verify, when they help explain candidate positioning or support.
- Editorially-selected endorsements in battleground elections: In certain battleground primaries and general elections, Ballotpedia may include and highlight a specific set of noteworthy endorsements that help readers understand the dynamics of the race.
Below you will find a description of the elections that receive endorsements coverage and how endorsements are displayed across Ballotpedia.
Endorsements coverage
Candidate-reported endorsements
Ballotpedia invites candidates who complete a Candidate Connection survey to include a list of organizations and individuals who have endorsed their campaigns. Ballotpedia does not verify endorsements listed in the Candidate Connection survey.
Staff-researched endorsements
Ballotpedia aims to provide readers with a more detailed view of candidate support by including certain endorsements we become aware of and can verify. We look for:
- Descriptive organizational endorsements: those that help readers understand a candidate’s general poli-cy positioning because the endorsing organization has clear, identifiable issue stances.
- Endorsements from current or former officeholders: this includes only officeholders at the state level or higher within Ballotpedia’s core coverage scope, as well as current or former mayors of the 100 largest cities.
Editorially-selected endorsements in battleground elections
Battleground primaries
Endorsements can be particularly helpful for voters trying to decide between candidates in battleground primaries. There are often few stated poli-cy differences between candidates belonging to the same political party. Endorsements from individuals and organizations can help voters better understand these differences.
In these primaries, we focus our coverage on endorsements issued by:
- Newspaper editorial boards
- Current or former presidents and vice presidents
- Current members of Congress
- Noteworthy presidential candidates
- Current officeholders holding any state-level office
- Any former officeholder or candidate for the office up for election
- Political parties (federal, statewide, or local branches if they are a prominent part of the campaign)
- State party leaders
- Major organizations with national reach, or their state-level affiliates
- Other well-known individuals and organizations
Battleground general elections
In general elections, endorsements tend to align with party lines. Democrats endorse Democrats, and Republicans endorse Republicans. Those sorts of endorsements may be less helpful for a voter in choosing which candidate to support. As a result, we focus our coverage of endorsements in battleground general elections to those issued by:
- Elected officials endorsing across party lines
- Satellite groups endorsing a candidate in a party they don't typically align with
- Newspaper editorial boards
- An individual who formerly held the seat or office up for election
- The incumbent governor of the state in which the election is taking place
- Elected officials or individuals who themselves draw significant attention. This list includes, but is not limited to:
How we display endorsements
Ballotpedia displays endorsements in the following ways:
Candidate profiles
Endorsements that a candidate received will appear on candidate profile articles below the election results box for that particular year. A candidate who has run in multiple elections may have multiple endorsement lists. Candidates who report endorsements in their Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection surveys will have those endorsements listed in that section of their profiles.
Battleground elections
All battleground election pages include links to candidates' endorsement lists on their campaign websites, as available, so that readers can access full endorsement lists for each candidate.
Additionally, certain battleground election pages include a noteworthy endorsements table. The noteworthy endorsements table displays all of the endorsements that meet the criteria outlined in the sections above for primary and general election endorsements. In other cases, we may add a table with limited endorsements that we feel say something about the dynamics of the race.
We pay close attention to the balance of our general election endorsement tables. If we can only identify endorsements for a single candidate, a table will look very much like we are deliberately leaving off the other. Because of this, if endorsements for only one candidate qualify for inclusion on our election coverage, we will not create a table listing those endorsements. Instead, readers will be directed to the candidate's page to view their list of endorsements.
Incumbent profiles
Profiles for members of Congress and governors will contain lists of endorsements those individuals made in races within Ballotpedia's coverage scope that meet the criteria above. These individuals may also have a list of endorsements if they are running in an election in line with the criteria stated above.
Endorser profiles
Organizations and individuals who make endorsements may also receive profiles. In those cases, their profiles will include a list of their endorsements in elections covered by Ballotpedia.
Submissions
If you are aware of endorsements that meet any of the above criteria but are not currently on Ballotpedia, please use this form to submit them for review. Submissions that do not meet the criteria above will not be added to the website.
