Jingle bell time a swell time to decide about a 2024 campaign

For everything in politics, there is a season. A period of primaries to winnow the field. Party conventions in the summertime. The Labor Day kickoff of the general election.

To such well-known mileposts of the political calendar, there must be added one more: talking with your family over the holidays about your next big campaign.

A Who’s Who of American politics has said recently, when pressed if they would run for federal office in 2024, that they would hash it out with family during the next two weeks. Democrat or Republican, whether testing a bid for Senate or aspiring to the White House, politicians have deflected, when asked if they’re jumping into a race, by resorting to nearly identical language.

“It’ll be a discussion that I have with my family over the holidays,” Sen. Jon Tester of Montana told “Meet the Press” when asked if he would seek re-election in 2024 to one of the Democratic Party’s most vulnerable seats.

“I will spend the upcoming holidays praying and talking with my wife, family and close friends,” Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana, chair of the Republican Study Committee, said about a possible run for an open Senate seat.

Everyone with a weighty political decision to make, it seems, is waiting for the end of the year to glean the opinions of a spouse, a wise uncle or a quixotic adolescent, solicited over mugs of eggnog or while trimming the tree with carols curated by Alexa. Political family summits are planned during holiday gatherings by President Joe Biden as well as by potential Republican presidential hopefuls including Mike Pence, Nikki Haley and Larry Hogan.

The timing in this political cycle is fortuitous. The weeks of Hanukkah, Christmas and New Year’s fall after the end of one election (the 2022 midterms) and before the increasingly early kickoff of the next one (the 2024 races for Senate and the White House).

With polls showing Republican support for former President Donald Trump sliding after the defeat in the midterms of many of his high-profile endorsed candidates, the stakes have climbed for potential rivals in the Republican presidential primary.

At least three Republicans – Haley, a former governor of South Carolina; Hogan, a former Maryland governor; and Pence, the former vice president – have said they will look closely at the race over the holidays.

Biden, who has expressed his intention to seek a second term, indicated after the midterms that he would consult with family members, particularly Jill Biden, the first lady.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.