Explain the significance of a ‘balanced ticket’ in US presidential elections.

The term 'balanced ticket', within the context of a US Presidential election, means when a presidential candidate chooses their running partner who embodies alternative values, beliefs or minority representation that the presidential candidate does not themselves. A 'balanced ticket' aims to increase the appeal of the presidential candidate to a greater number of voters, who may have had concern about them not posessing certain beliefs or representing parts of society. The most obvious example of this can be seen with President Obama, who chose Joe Biden as his vice presidential candidate. Obama was only a one term Senator by the time he took the decision to run for President, many were concerned about his lack of experience within the US political scene. The decision to bring in Joe Biden evoked a sense of stability and experience, with Joe Biden being 19 years his senior, and had been a senator since 1973. Biden's experience within US political sought to balance the ticket between Obama's youth and inexperience, to make the Democratic Party ticket appear more credible and bring in more votes. In a more contemporary sense, the decision of President Trump to bring in Mike Pence signals an 'outsider' or antiestablishment figure bringing in someone with Congressional experience of 12 years, and a popular figure amongst the Republican party in order to gain the wider support of the GOP. Pence is thought to evoke towards the social conservative voters that President Trump did not intitially connect with, with Pence being a clear representative towards the evangelical Christian members of the electorate, who hold concerns about issues such as abortion.