Elections & terms
party platform
The policy document a party adopts at its convention. It binds no one legally, but it records what the party says it stands for.
In full
Platforms are drafted by a committee, fought over in public, and adopted by the convention. Officeholders are free to ignore them, and often do. Their value is documentary: a platform is a dated, on-the-record statement of a party's stated commitments that can be compared against what its officeholders later do.
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A plain-language explanation for civic education, not legal advice. When in doubt, the official source named above controls.