If the race is close, we can say the candidates are neck-and-neck. This horse racing term means the two candidates are nearly tied in the polls and a winner is difficult to predict. We call such a race – political or otherwise – a dead heat.

In the early part of an election cycle when a party is picking its nominee, usually many candidates are in the running. Sometimes a candidate pulls away from the pack and becomes the clear favorite.

These two terms also come from horse racing. So does down to the wire.

In a horse race, the horses race to the finish and run through a wire as they cross the finish line. A presidential race that is down to the wire is very close. The only way to know the winner is to wait for all the votes to be counted.

If a candidate wins the election by a large margin -- that is to say won by many, many votes -- he or she has won hands down. We also say the race was a landslide. Or you could say the race was simply no contest.

These expressions all mean a candidate won easily.

But if a candidate loses an election by a big margin, we could say that campaign got blown out of the water, as if by a submarine torpedo. Or we might say simply that the candidate got crushed at the polls. More informally, we might also say the candidate got beat like a rug, which is visually entertaining.

Some candidates lose an election because they are unwilling to toe the party line. In other words, they refuse to go along with the rules and standards of their own political party. This may upset the candidate’s base -- the people who usually support that party.

The opposite of toeing the party line is reaching across the aisle. In the U.S., the two major parties are the Democrats and the Republicans. In this expression, the “aisle” refers to the actual physical walkway that divides the legislative halls. Members of the two parties sit on opposite sides.

So “to reach across the aisle” means to make an effort to negotiate with members who are not in your party. Many politicians win elections because of their willingness to work with members of the opposing party. On the other hand, some politicians lose for the same reason.

cycle – n. a set of events or actions that happen again and again in the same order : a repeating series of events or actions
runner-up – n. a person or team that finishes in second place (in a competition)
margin – n. a measurement of difference < We lost the election by a one-vote margin. [= we lost the election by one vote]
landslide – n. an election in which the winner gets a much greater number of votes than the loser
crushed – v. to defeat (a person or group that opposes you) by using a lot of force
party line – n. the official policy or opinion of a political party or other organization that members are expected to support <Congress voted along party lines on the new education bill. [ party lines = members of each party voted in the expected way]
base – n. something (such as a group of people or things) that provides support for a place, business, etc. — usually singular