In politics, a candidate or party's base or core support refers to the voters who support them for elected office based on core values. On the left–right political spectrum, left-leaning bases tend to be liberal while right-leaning bases tend to be conservative. In the United States, high-level candidates must hold the same stances on key issues as a party's base in order to gain the party's nomination and thus be guaranteed ballot access. In the case of legislative elections, base voters often prefer to support their party's candidate against an otherwise appealing opponent in order to strengthen their party's chances of gaining a majority in the legislature.^{[citation needed]}