Collocations for candidate - noun

potential, prospective
Prospective parliamentary candidates met party leaders last week.

likely, possible, qualified, suitable, viable, worthy
She's a likely candidate for promotion.

excellent, good, ideal, obvious, perfect, prime, promising, strong
This is a prime candidate for best movie of the year.

leading, top
unlikely, unsuitable
successful
The successful candidate will be fluent in French and German.

losing, unsuccessful
congressional, gubernatorial (AmE), mayoral, parliamentary, presidential, prime-ministerial
doctoral (AmE), PhD (esp. AmE)
Elena is a doctoral candidate at Johns Hopkins University.

Conservative, Democratic, etc.

put yourself forward as, stand as (esp. BrE)
She decided to stand as a candidate in the local elections.

field, nominate, put up, run
Our organization is putting up five candidates in the elections.

back, endorse, favour/favor, support, vote for
consider, interview, screen
choose, elect, select
The committee will select the best candidate for the job.

reject
We rejected most of the candidates as unsuitable.

candidate for
She was the only candidate for the post.