Why It Worked

Small groups play several rounds and track which tickets and platforms won big and which collapsed. A structured discussion connects the game’s coalition mechanics to how real governing majorities are built — and lost.

Learning Objectives

• Identify how combining candidates and policy positions affects a coalition’s breadth of support.
• Explain, in their own words, why an extreme or self-contradictory platform can lose support.
• Connect a game mechanic to a real principle of coalition politics.

How to Run It

1. In groups of 3–4, students play at least four rounds, recording for each: the ticket, the three policies chosen, the strategy, and the final electoral vote total.
2. Groups sort their runs from best to worst result.
3. Groups identify their single best run and single worst run and write one sentence on why each turned out the way it did.
4. Each group shares its best and worst with the class. The teacher records patterns on the board.
5. Whole-class discussion using the questions below.

Discussion Questions

• What did the winning tickets have in common? What about the losing ones?
• The game punishes ‘betraying your base.’ What does that mean, and why would it cost votes in a real election?
• Is it better to appeal strongly to a few states or moderately to many? When does each strategy win?
• How is building a winning ticket like — and unlike — building a real political coalition?