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Extra content: Solid South would be an example, and most California statewide offices too |
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{{sources|date=November 2020}}
"'''Tantamount to election'''" is a phrase describing the situation in which one [[political party]] dominates the [[demographics]] of a voting district to such a degree that the candidate winning the nomination of that party for a race (whether by [[primary election|primary]] or another method) will be virtually assured of winning the [[general election]]. The phrase "[[safe seat]]" (referring to the general election) is commonly used to describe such a district.
The phrase is most commonly used in the [[United States]], often describing the [[Solid South]], where for decades 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]].<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).</ref> For example, the state of [[Alabama]], which was formerly heavily Democratic, did not have a Republican governor or lieutenant governor between 1874 and 1987. Conversely, no Democrat served as governor of [[Vermont]] between 1854 and 1963. However, after the Republicans took control of the South in the 1970s, most Southern states have become overwhelmingly Republican at both the federal and state levels. In almost all rural, white-majority congressional districts in the South, winning the Republican primary is now considered tantamount to election.{{cn|date=August 2020}} For Democrats, the same can be said of many urban districts around the country, particularly those with a large minority population.{{cn|date=February 2020}}
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