On this show , we explore common expressions in American English . Today we talk about expressions related to the biggest contest in the United States – the election of the American president . Well , except for the first election . That was not much of a contest . On February 4 , 1789 , all 69 members of Congress voted for George Washington . Supposedly , Washington didn't even want to be president . So , according to the rules at the time , Adams became Washington's vice president . Elections these days are much harder to win . They can last for years and cost millions and millions of dollars . So it is not surprising that there are many expressions to describe the race for the White House . That expression , in fact , is one of them . We often call political elections races , a word you probably know from sports . Many expressions we use for political campaigns are borrowed from sports competitions . In fact , sometimes we just cut to the chase and call the presidential election , a horse race . 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 . 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 . 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 . Voters can , sometimes , be very difficult to predict .