What is a stealth candidate?

Answer 1

"Stealth Candidate" is used, typically in hindsight after an election, to refer to two different kinds of politicians. What they have in common is that their core beliefs and legislative ambitions do not generally emerge until after they have won the election. This is due as much to biased or careless reporting as it is to any concealed agenda.

1) The original "stealth candidates," back when the term was coined in the 1980's, were members of the Christian Right running for local office who never showed up on the media's radar because they did most of their campaigning in churches where journalists didn't attend. They were thereby able to pick up the endorsements of key figures in the movement who influenced a heavy voter turnout of their people, thus resulting in the defeat of the front-runners who enjoyed wide popular support in the polls, but were underrepresented in the voting booth.

2) "Stealth Candidate" was also being used by the 2000's to refer to any politician who ran on either a vague (e.g. "Bring hope and change") or hopelessly unrealistic (e.g. "End the war in Iraq") platform in order to get the votes needed to get into office, without any realistic plan to actually fulfill the campaign promises once elected. Voters would then choose the politician who was best at making them feel good, rather than one who could actually deliver on what was promised.