Definition
A person who seeks, or is put forward by others to seek, an elected or appointed office, nomination, or other official privilege. A candidate need not be formally nominated to qualify as one — the term reaches any person actively pursuing an office, whether or not that pursuit has produced a formal ballot position. In constitutional and statutory contexts, courts have broadly applied the term to include persons who are seeking office in the popular sense, even absent official recognition by a party or electoral authority.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): To stand as a candidate for an office, typically a religious one; or to put something forward as a candidate (suitable choice) for a purpose.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): One who offers himself, or is put forward by others, as a suitable person or aspirant or contestant for an office, privilege, or honor.
The common and legal meanings overlap substantially at their core — both describe a person seeking or put forward for a position. The gap opens in legal contexts where "candidate" is a defined term of art carrying regulatory consequences. The Wiktionary entry's verbal usage (to candidate for) and its extension to non-human "candidates" (i.e., things being considered for a purpose) have no foothold in legal usage, where the term remains anchored to persons seeking public office or official position.
Why It Matters in Research
The legal weight carried by the word "candidate" varies dramatically depending on the context. In election law and campaign finance regulation, the moment a person becomes a "candidate" triggers a cascade of legal obligations — disclosure requirements, spending limits, contribution rules — making the precise definition a threshold question of considerable practical importance. Federal and state statutes frequently supply their own definitions of "candidate" for these purposes, and those statutory definitions may differ from the common law understanding. Researchers working in historical sources should be alert to this: older authorities use the term descriptively (a person seeking office), while modern regulatory frameworks use it operationally (a status that attaches at a defined trigger point).
The constitutional dimension is also significant. State constitutional provisions disqualifying candidates guilty of bribery or election fraud have generated interpretive questions about how early in the process "candidate" status attaches. Anderson's formulation — that the term is used in its popular sense, reaching any person who seeks an office whether nominated or not — reflects the broader construction courts have tended to favor in constitutional disqualification contexts.
Researchers using historical sources should also watch for ballot access disputes, in which the definition of "candidate" intersects with questions about party recognition, petition requirements, and independent candidacies. The corpus connections here run directly to administrative law materials covering electoral board decisions and state constitutional conventions.
Historical Dictionary Support
The historical dictionaries are in close agreement on the core definition: a candidate is one who offers himself, or is presented by others, for election or appointment to office. Black's (both editions) and Rapalje & Lawrence are substantively identical, and Anderson adds only the constitutional gloss noted above. All four sources treat the term as encompassing persons seeking nomination or appointment, not just those already on a ballot.
None of the historical dictionaries engages with the modern regulatory dimension — the point at which candidacy status triggers statutory obligations under campaign finance or election law frameworks. This is the most significant gap between historical dictionary coverage and contemporary legal usage. Researchers relying solely on these sources will find useful foundational meaning but will miss the substantial body of statutory and administrative law that now governs the term's operation.
Rapalje & Lawrence's citation to 3 Burr. 1586, 1590 is a reference to an English case from Lord Mansfield's era, reflecting that the term had established legal currency in Anglo-American usage well before modern election law developed.
Jurisdictional Note
State statutes and state constitutional provisions vary in how they define the moment candidacy attaches. Some tie it to filing a declaration of candidacy; others to the act of accepting contributions or making expenditures with electoral intent. Federal campaign finance law (and FEC regulations implementing it) supply yet another definition. Researchers should always locate the controlling statutory definition for the jurisdiction and regulatory context at issue rather than relying on the common law meaning alone.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Ballot Access, Third Parties, and Candidate Eligibility Requirements — The Law Mind Administrative Law & Government Encyclopedia