EvgeniyShkolenko/Getty Images
The end of a U.S. election season can feel like the final leg of a marathon. That’s because the U.S. stands out among global democracies for its long campaigns, which dwarf those of its neighbors and allies — exceeding them by months, or even years.
When President Joe Biden exited the presidential race on July 21, his vice president, Kamala Harris, was left with only 107 days to run her campaign, an anomaly in modern U.S. electoral politics. In that same window, Japan could have run almost nine campaigns.
Former president Donald Trump declared his candidacy for the 2024 election on Nov. 15, 2022. Measured from then, he will have run a 720-day campaign. That’s 60 Japanese campaigns. Biden’s campaign lasted 453 days before it was suspended. (Only 37 Japanese campaigns.)
Though Japan represents the shorter end of the spectrum, campaigns around the world tend to run the span of several months. The mandated campaign period in Mexico begins 93 days before the election and ends three days before — a required end-of-campaign cooldown that also features elsewhere, but not in the United States. In Canada, election seasons must run a minimum of 36 days, and traditionally don’t run much longer than that, with rare exceptions: Canada’s 2015 federal election ranks among its longest, at 11 weeks. In Britain, the official campaign period is 25 weekdays, or roughly five weeks.
The differences aren’t always as stark as they appear. Some democracies with parliamentary systems, such as Canada and Britain, have short campaign periods, but because their major candidates are also the leaders of their parties, voters are generally familiar with their names and policies — which is not always true of aspirants for higher office in the United States. But different political systems don’t fully explain the gap: Countries including Mexico, which, like the United States, have a presidential system, still manage to run shorter election campaigns.
In some cases, the gap can be explained by strict regulations around political campaigns. Some countries mandate limits on the lengths of campaigns. In Israel, for example, campaigns run for the 101 days before election day. In France, presidential campaigns last for two weeks before the first ballot, and campaigning ends on the Friday before elections, which are held on Sundays. Australia mandates that a vote must be held on a Saturday between 33 and 58 days after elections are called.
Others countries, such as Argentina and Mexico, have laws about when candidates can run ads. Japan and Brazil offer limited, free public broadcasting time for political ads. Israel offers the same, and mandates that advertisements run only in the three weeks ahead of the election. Israeli law also prohibits candidates from purchasing broadcast time for ads. Meanwhile, in the United States, political ad spending is projected to reach $12 billion in 2024, and that money takes time to raise — and spend.
Money is a key factor in long U.S. political campaigns. Belgium, Britain, France, Japan, Mexico, South Korea and other countries have caps on campaign spending. Some of those countries, and many others — including Canada, Israel and Germany — offer public financing for campaigns and political parties. (The United States has a public funding system, but recent presidential candidates from both major parties have opted out because of spending limits.) In Brazil, several recent laws have limited individual contributions to campaigns and established public funding avenues after a 2015 Supreme Court ruling banning private legal entities from donating to political campaigns.
Viable presidential campaigns in the United States require enormous sums of money to run, necessitating earlier starts to hit fundraising deadlines.
But some credit former president Jimmy Carter, who ran with public funding, for starting the trend of lengthy campaigns: He announced his candidacy for the 1976 presidential race in late 1974. Previously, candidates spent far less time on the campaign trail. Dwight D. Eisenhower, for example, didn’t resign as NATO commander to focus on campaigning until June 1952, only months before the election. He did not resign his position as president of Columbia University until after his victory.
After declaring, Carter spent much of 1975 stumping in Iowa and building name recognition and campaign infrastructure in Florida and New Hampshire. At the time, all three states were important strategic destinations because of their early caucuses and primary votes, the results of which would affect voters’ choices in later states. In October 1975, the New York Times wrote that Carter’s “presidential aspirations have been considered laughable by many Washington experts.” Still, his early investment effectively won him Iowa and eventually the presidency — and reshaped the modern political campaign.
“Before 1976, extensive private preparations notwithstanding, candidates almost always waited until the actual calendar year of the election before announcing their candidacy,” wrote political scientist Larry Sabato in the Wall Street Journal. When Carter won, “his successful strategy became the new norm, copied by candidates in both parties since.”
After Carter’s victory in Iowa, other states — seeking the attention and spending that accompanies political campaigns — moved their nomination contests earlier into the year. As a result, serious candidates have started raising money earlier for staff and infrastructure in more states, necessitating a longer campaign cycle.