"… favorite son …" -- Back in the day, when national political conventions often decided the nominee AFTER they gathered together, many states would withhold support until (a) they saw which way the wind was blowing and (b) could negotiate for a Vice Presidential nominee, the promise of a Cabinet Secretary, or some such, by voting for a "favorite son." A favorite son was someone from that state who could forever claim he had gotten some number of votes toward his party's presidential nomination. Favorite son candidacies have faded from favor since the advent of the current primary system.

"… 54 electoral votes …" -- The Presidential election is not truly a national election, it is really fifty-plus state-by-state winner-take-all elections. Each state is awarded on electoral vote for each member of the House of Representatives and one for each Senator. So California, which has 52 House Members gets one vote for each of those plus one each for its Senators. Texas has 30 House members, Florida 23, and so on. No state, therefore, gets less than 3 electoral votes because every state has at least one member of the House and Two Senators. A candidate for President gets ALL the electoral votes by coming in first in a state. It is not a proportional vote, which is to say you don't split up the electoral votes on the basis of the percentage of the popular vote. That is why it is possible to win the Presidency without winning the popular vote. We will go over this material many more times over the rest of this semester.