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veepstakes

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: Veepstakes

English

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WOTD – 5 March 2024

Etymology

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Blend of veep (“(informal) Vice President of the United States”) +‎ sweepstakes (plural of sweepstake (“lottery in which the prize or prizes constitute all the money paid by the participants”)).[1]

Pronunciation

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Noun

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veepstakes (plural veepstakes)

  1. (US politics, slang, humorous) The process by which candidates for the Presidency of the United States choose a running mate to become the Vice President if elected.
    The candidate for the challenging party was undergoing a veepstakes.
    • 1952 May 13, Earl Wilson, “It happened last night: Veepstakes provide laughs even in serious campaign”, in W. E. Christenson, editor, Evening World-Herald, number 222, Omaha, Neb.: World Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 25, column 3:
      What America needs now is comedy—so hurray, we're getting ready to elect a Vice-President! Sure, we elect a Boss Man too, but it'll be the Veepstakes that'll provide the laughs.
    • 1984 June, Kaye Northcott, “Campaign 84: Only a Heartbeat Away: Will the Next Vice President of the United States be a Woman?”, in Deirdre English, editor, Mother Jones, volume IX, number V, San Francisco, Calif.: Foundation for National Progress, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 40, columns 1–2:
      [Barbara] Mikulski, who is 47, is the least chic of the women mentioned in the veepstakes. Barely 4 feet 11 inches tall, she barrels through the halls of Congress like a small tank. Her facial expressions swing from a pugnacious frown to an impish grin.
    • 1994, Gerald [Clifford] Gardner, “Campaign 1972: So I Made a Mistake”, in Campaign Comedy: Political Humor from Clinton to Kennedy (Humor in Life and Letters), Detroit, Mich.: Wayne State University Press, →ISBN, page 194:
      If [Spiro] Agnew abandoned his inflammatory rhetoric during the 1972 campaign, he did not abandon his corrosive wit altogether. The more restrained Agnew twitted Sargent Shriver, the Democratic candidate in the Veepstakes, on his personal wealth.
    • 2008 June 15, Mark Leibovich, “Tiny town: Washington after a fall”, in The New York Times‎[1], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2023-06-01:
      He laughed again and we talked vividly, I recall, on the topic of how many people in Washington are obsessed with where they rank, how they’re perceived. It’s a particularly acute concern in television and politics—ratings, veepstakes, poll numbers, the kind of things that mean everything and nothing in Washington.
    • 2008 June 22, Mark Leibovich, “The great American float”, in The New York Times‎[2], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-11-26:
      Mr. [Chuck] Todd, whose ubiquity as a running-mate handicapper at his network is akin to Mel Kiper Jr.’s as an N.F.L. draft expert on ESPN, said that all the time and energy devoted to the veepstakes these days is well spent.
    • 2012 April 2, Frank Bruni, “And now, the veepstakes”, in The New York Times‎[3], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 2022-06-17:
      The above is worth remembering as the presidential race turns the corner into its most feverishly speculative, excessively breathless phase: the veepstakes.
    • 2024 August 3, Martin Pengelly, “Crunch time in ‘veepstakes’ as Kamala Harris prepares to choose running mate”, in The Guardian‎[4], →ISSN:
      Harris’s choice will come down to “who can have the hard conversations”, a former Harris aide turned US senator said as the “veepstakes” neared their conclusion.

Alternative forms

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Translations

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References

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  1. ^ “veepstakes, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2021.

Further reading

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