paragraph_text: On July 6, John Kerry selected John Edwards as his running mate, shortly before the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, held later that month. Days before Kerry announced Edwards as his running mate, Kerry gave a short list of three candidates: Sen John Edwards, Rep Dick Gephardt, and Gov Tom Vilsack. Heading into the convention, the Kerry/Edwards ticket unveiled their new slogan—a promise to make America "stronger at home and more respected in the world." Kerry made his Vietnam War experience the prominent theme of the convention. In accepting the nomination, he began his speech with, "I'm John Kerry and I'm reporting for duty." He later delivered what may have been the speech's most memorable line when he said, "the future doesn't belong to fear, it belongs to freedom", a quote that later appeared in a Kerry/Edwards television advertisement.

paragraph_text: In a reversal of alignments, since the late 1960s the Republican Party has grown more prominent within the state based on an influx of primarily white voters (the majority in the state) from the Democratic Party. By the mid-1990s, it became the state's dominant political party.

paragraph_text: Robert M. Shrum (born July 21, 1943) is the Director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics and the Carmen H. and Louis Warschaw Chair in Practical Politics at the University of Southern California, where he is a Professor of the Practice of Political Science in the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. He is a former American political consultant, who has worked on numerous Democratic campaigns, including as senior advisor to the Kerry-Edwards campaign in 2004 and to the Gore-Lieberman campaign in 2000. Shrum wrote the famous speech Ted Kennedy gave at the 1980 Democratic National Convention conceding to and supporting President Jimmy Carter. The Atlantic Monthly described him as "the most sought-after consultant in the Democratic Party." Shrum served as speechwriter to New York Mayor John V. Lindsay from 1970 to 1971, speechwriter to Senator George McGovern's 1972 Presidential campaign and speechwriter and press secretary to Senator Edward M. Kennedy from 1980 to 1984 and political consultant until 2009.

paragraph_text: Vice President of the United States Seal of the Vice President Flag of the Vice President Incumbent Mike Pence since January 20, 2017 United States Senate Executive branch of the U.S. government Office of the Vice President Style Mr. Vice President (informal) The Honorable (formal) Mr. President (as President of the Senate) His Excellency (international correspondence) Status Second - highest executive branch officer President of the Senate Member of Cabinet National Security Council National Space Council (Chairman) United States Senate (President) Residence Number One Observatory Circle Seat Washington, D.C. Nominator President of the United States, Political parties Appointer Electoral College of the United States Term length 4 years, no term limit Constituting instrument United States Constitution Formation March 4, 1789 (229 years ago) (1789 - 03 - 04) First holder John Adams April 21, 1789 Succession First Deputy President pro tempore of the United States Senate (in the Senate) Salary US $230,700 annually Website www.whitehouse.gov

paragraph_text: If no candidate for president receives a majority of electoral votes for president, the Twelfth Amendment provides that the House of Representatives will select the president, with each of the fifty state delegations casting one vote. If no candidate for vice president receives a majority of electoral votes for vice president, then the Senate will select the vice president, with each of the 100 senators having one vote.

paragraph_text: Vice presidents have cast 261 tie - breaking votes since the U.S. federal government was established in 1789. The vice president with the most tie breaking votes is John Adams (served 1789 -- 1797) with 29. The current Vice President Mike Pence, in office since January 2017, has made six tie - breaking votes.

paragraph_text: Plymouth was granted the dignity of Lord Mayor by King George V in 1935. The position is elected each year by a group of six councillors. It is traditional that the position of the Lord Mayor alternates between the Conservative Party and the Labour Party annually and that the Lord Mayor chooses the Deputy Lord Mayor. Conservative councillor Dr John Mahony is the incumbent for 2015–16.

paragraph_text: North Carolina's party loyalties have undergone a series of important shifts in the last few years: While the 2010 midterms saw Tar Heel voters elect a bicameral Republican majority legislature for the first time in over a century, North Carolina has also become a Southern swing state in presidential races. Since Southern Democrat Jimmy Carter's comfortable victory in the state in 1976, the state had consistently leaned Republican in presidential elections until Democrat Barack Obama narrowly won the state in 2008. In the 1990s, Democrat Bill Clinton came within a point of winning the state in 1992 and also only narrowly lost the state in 1996. In the early 2000s, Republican George W. Bush easily won the state by over 12 points, but by 2008, demographic shifts, population growth, and increased liberalization in heavily populated areas such as the Research Triangle, Charlotte, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, Fayetteville, and Asheville, propelled Barack Obama to victory in North Carolina, the first Democrat to win the state since 1976. In 2012, North Carolina was again considered a competitive swing state, with the Democrats even holding their 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte. However, Republican Mitt Romney ultimately eked out a 2-point win in North Carolina, the only 2012 swing state that Obama lost, and one of only two states (along with Indiana) to flip from Obama in 2008 to the GOP in 2012.

paragraph_text: In 1888 Frederick Douglass was invited to speak at the Republican National Convention. Afterward during the roll call vote, he received one vote, so was nominally a candidate for the presidency. In those years, the candidates for the presidency and vice presidency were chosen by state representatives voting at the nominating convention. Many decisions were made by negotiations of state and party leaders ``behind closed doors. ''Douglass was not a serious candidate in contemporary terms.

paragraph_text: The United States presidential election of 2020, scheduled for Tuesday, November 3, 2020, will be the 59th quadrennial U.S. presidential election. Voters will select presidential electors who in turn will either elect a new president and vice president through the electoral college or reelect the incumbents. The series of presidential primary elections and caucuses are likely to be held during the first six months of 2020. This nominating process is also an indirect election, where voters cast ballots selecting a slate of delegates to a political party's nominating convention, who then in turn elect their party's presidential nominee.

paragraph_text: The presiding officer of the Senate is the Vice President of the United States, who is President of the Senate. In the Vice President's absence, the President Pro Tempore, who is customarily the senior member of the party holding a majority of seats, presides over the Senate. In the early 20th century, the practice of majority and minority parties electing their floor leaders began, although they are not constitutional officers.

paragraph_text: United States Congress 115th United States Congress Type Type Bicameral Houses Senate House of Representatives History Founded March 4, 1789 (228 years ago) (1789 - 03 - 04) Preceded by Congress of the Confederation New session started January 3, 2017 Leadership President of the Senate & Vice President Mike Pence (R) Since January 20, 2017 Speaker of the House of Representatives Paul Ryan (R) Since October 29, 2015 President pro tempore of the Senate Orrin Hatch (R) Since January 6, 2015 Structure Seats 535 voting members 100 senators 435 representatives 6 non-voting members Senate political groups Republican (51) Democratic (47) Independent (2) (caucusing with Democrats) House of Representatives political groups Republican (239) Democratic (193) Vacant (3) Elections Senate last election November 8, 2016 House of Representatives last election November 8, 2016 Meeting place United States Capitol Washington, D.C., United States Website www.congress.gov

paragraph_text: The election exposed one of the flaws in the original Constitution of the United States. Members of the Electoral College were authorized by the original Constitution to vote for two names for President, theoretically one for the preferred President and one for the preferred Vice President but in fact counted up into the same ballot, enabling the possibility that a vice presidential candidate could be elected President. (The two - vote ballot was created in order to try to maximize the possibility that one candidate received votes from a majority of the electors nationwide; the drafters of the Constitution had not anticipated the rise of organized political parties, which made it much easier to attain a nationwide majority.) The candidate with the most electoral votes would become President and the candidate with the second most would become Vice President. The Democratic - Republicans had planned for one of the electors to abstain from casting his second vote for Aaron Burr, which would have led to Jefferson receiving one electoral vote more than Burr, making Jefferson President and Burr Vice President. The plan, however, was mishandled. Each elector who voted for Jefferson also voted for Burr, resulting in a tied electoral vote. The election was then put into the hands of the outgoing House of Representatives, which, after 35 votes in which neither Jefferson nor Burr obtained a majority, elected Jefferson on the 36th ballot.

paragraph_text: Vice President of the United States of America Vice Presidential seal Vice Presidential standard Incumbent Mike Pence since January 20, 2017 Executive branch of the U.S. government Office of the Vice President Style Mr. Vice President (Informal) The Honorable (Formal) Mr. President (When presiding over Senate) His Excellency (In international correspondence) Member of Cabinet National Security Council President of the U.S. Senate Residence Number One Observatory Circle Seat Washington, D.C. Appointer Electoral College Term length 4 years Constituting instrument U.S. Constitution Inaugural holder John Adams (April 21, 1789) Formation March 4, 1789 (228 years ago) (1789 - 03 - 04) Succession First Salary $230,700 Website WhiteHouse.gov

paragraph_text: Twelve Senators from each state are elected for six-year terms, using proportional representation and the single transferable vote (known in Australia as "quota-preferential voting": see Australian electoral system), with half elected every three years. In addition to the state Senators, two senators are elected by voters from the Northern Territory (which for this purpose includes the Indian Ocean Territories, Christmas Island and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands), while another two senators are elected by the voters of the Australian Capital Territory (which for this purpose includes the Jervis Bay Territory). Senators from the territories are also elected using preferential voting, but their term of office is not fixed;  it starts on the day of a general election for the House of Representatives and ends on the day before the next such election.

paragraph_text: The election of President and Vice President of the United States is an indirect election in which citizens of the United States who are registered to vote in one of the 50 U.S. states or in Washington, D.C. cast ballots not directly for those offices, but instead for members of the U.S. Electoral College, known as electors. These electors then in turn cast direct votes, known as electoral votes, for President, and for Vice President. The candidate who receives an absolute majority of electoral votes (at least 270 out of a total of 538, since the Twenty - Third Amendment granting voting rights to citizens of Washington, D.C.) is then elected to that office. If no candidate receives an absolute majority of the votes for President, the House of Representatives chooses the winner; if no one receives an absolute majority of the votes for Vice President, then the Senate chooses the winner.

paragraph_text: Joint sessions and meetings are usually held in the Chamber of the House of Representatives, and are traditionally presided over by the Speaker of the House. However, the Constitution requires the Vice President (as President of the Senate) to preside over the counting of electoral votes.

paragraph_text: Religious tensions were major issues in the presidential elections of 1928 when the Democrats nominated Al Smith, a Catholic who was defeated, and in 1960 when the Democrats nominated John F. Kennedy, a Catholic who was elected. For the next three elections, a Catholic would be nominated for the vice presidency by one of the two major parties (Bill Miller in 1964, Ed Muskie in 1968, Tom Eagleton and then Sarge Shriver in 1972), but the ticket would lose. Geraldine Ferraro would continue the tradition in 1984, until it was broken in 2008. A Catholic, John Kerry, lost the 2004 election to incumbent George W. Bush, a Methodist, who may have won the Catholic vote. 2012 was the first election where both major party vice presidential candidates were Catholic, Joe Biden and Paul Ryan.

paragraph_text: In the 2004 Democratic presidential primaries, John Kerry defeated several Democratic rivals, including Sen. John Edwards (D-North Carolina.), former Vermont Governor Howard Dean and retired Army General Wesley Clark. His victory in the Iowa caucuses is widely believed to be the tipping point where Kerry revived his sagging campaign in New Hampshire and the February 3, 2004, primary states like Arizona, South Carolina and New Mexico. Kerry then went on to win landslide victories in Nevada and Wisconsin. Kerry thus won the Democratic nomination to run for President of the United States against incumbent George W. Bush. On July 6, 2004, he announced his selection of John Edwards as his running mate. Democratic strategist Bob Shrum, who was Kerry's 2004 campaign adviser, wrote an article in Time magazine claiming that after the election, Kerry had said that he wished he'd never picked Edwards, and that the two have since stopped speaking to each other. In a subsequent appearance on ABC's This Week, Kerry refused to respond to Shrum's allegation, calling it a "ridiculous waste of time."

paragraph_text: The city of Houston has a strong mayoral form of municipal government. Houston is a home rule city and all municipal elections in the state of Texas are nonpartisan. The City's elected officials are the mayor, city controller and 16 members of the Houston City Council. The current mayor of Houston is Sylvester Turner, a Democrat elected on a nonpartisan ballot. Houston's mayor serves as the city's chief administrator, executive officer, and official representative, and is responsible for the general management of the city and for seeing that all laws and ordinances are enforced.

Question: What year did the voters from the state a Senator that John Kerry chose as his running mate represents vote again for the party Mayor Turner aligns with?
Answer: 2008