I found the phrase, “run on a ticket with a man” in the today’s (December 9) Washington Post article titled, “Gingrich run could bring up bad memories for former colleagues.” The article begins with the following sentence:
“If former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is the Republican presidential nominee, many members of Congress will run on a ticket with a man they worked with two decades ago. Judging by some of their public comments, not all of them would necessarily welcome the idea.”
As I’m uncertain of the meaning of “run on a ticket with a man,” I consulted OED, Cambridge, and M-W online dictionary.
Only Cambridge Dictionary registered ‘run on sth.’ as the idiom accompanied with the explanation; ‘If a machine runs on a particular type of power, it uses that power to work; e.g. Some calculators run on solar power, though I don’t think this definition is applicable to the usage of the phrase in the above quote.
Neither OED nor M-E registers “run on ticket” nor “run on something.”
However, GoogleNgram shows the usage trend of “run on a ticket.” The phrase emerged in circ.1870, and its usage has been dwindling after peaking around 1930.
What does "run on a ticket with somebody” mean? Is it a well-received English idiom?