1. Win the white house

2. The Candidate’s Mind Map
Activity One

3. Creating Your Campaign
Candidate's Mind Map
Running for president involves a lot of different tasks. Complete the mind map with supporting details.
Raising Money
Creating Your Campaign
Running For President
Have students brainstorm their ideas on their half sheets. Then, call on individual students to write some of the tasks they thought of on the scroll on the interactive white board. Discuss students’ ideas with the class. If they need help, try the following reframing:
Creating Your Campaign: What are some of the first decisions a candidate must make? (party, issues they care about, etc.)
Raising Money: Where does the money come from? How do you get it? (individual donors, companies, the party, fundraisers in person/online, etc.)
Sharing Your Message: How will voters know about you? (TV/internet/radio ads, personal speeches, endorsements)
Getting Good Data: How do you how well you are doing? What the voters care about? (national and regional polls)
Getting Good Data
Sharing Your Message

4. Ingredients of a Campaign
Activity Two

5. Money makes campaigns go ‘round
Why do candidates need money to run for office?
Getting the word out about you and your campaign costs a lot of money.
Examples: commercials, flyers, yard signs, office space
Campaigns have volunteers that work for free, but they rely on a paid staff too.
What are some sources of campaign funding?
Individual funders
Political Action Campaigns (PACs) and SuperPACs
Once a candidate gets the nomination, the political party will assist with fundraising.

6. Polls, data, and pie charts, oh my!
Why do candidates need data?
Shows what people believe
Determines how they feel about something or someone
Predicts how people may vote
Helps focus messaging
Informs campaign direction
Shows impact of efforts
Where does data come from?
Polls and surveys conducted by a candidate’s campaign
Independent polls and surveys (by colleges, newspapers, etc.)
Exit polls at voting places
Larger data collections like the US Census and historical research

7. Lights, Camera, Appearance!
Political Campaign Ads
Can be found on TV, radio, the internet, and in print
Helps spread a candidate’s message over a wide area, but can be expensive
The message may be positive focusing on the candidate, or be negative attacking the candidate’s opponent.
Personal Appearances
Allows for face-to-face meetings with voters.
May be in a small town hall setting, or in an arena of thousands.
Requires a lot of travel, which can be expensive and exhausting.
May not always go as planned if the crowd isn’t friendly.

8. Next…
Tell students they will be playing a game called “Win the White House” that will drop them right into the middle of their own presidential campaign!
You are nearly a campaign expert! Play Win the White House to put your new skills to the test and run for president!

9. Candidates do what? When?
Activity Three

10. Candidates do what? When?
Drag the tasks to the best phase of a campaign.
Fundraise, fundraise, fundraise
Pick a political party and jump in
Take a stand on the issues
Campaign in person across the country
Keep an eye on your opponent
Win over 270 Electoral Votes
Earn your party’s nomination
Win delegates at primaries & caucuses
Run savvy campaign ads

11. Mini-Quiz Test Your Knowledge
Work through the mini-quiz, asking for whole-group responses from your class. Click to show the answer before advancing each slide.

12.  1) Which step of the electoral process comes before the others?
A. National election
B. Primary elections
C. National party conventions
D. Primary debates 

13. 2) How many Electoral College votes must you win to become president?
A. At least 538 votes
B. 270 or more votes
C. At least 2/3 of votes
D. All the votes 

14.  3) Fundraising is important to a presidential campaign because…
A. Campaigns are expensive!
B. Votes cost a lot of money
C. Commercials are free to candidates.

15.  4) Which of these is not a benefit of campaign ads?
Allow face to face time with voters
Help spread the message across a broad audience
Can be used across TV, radio, internet, and print

16.  5) Positive campaign ads… Criticize the candidate’s opponent
Focus on the candidate
Talk about the issues only, not the candidates 

17. 6) A candidate that might support an issue or two from the other party is called a…
Split ticket
Maverick
Third party candidate 

18.  7) Which of these is not an source of campaign funding?
National Parties
Individual Donors
Political Action Committees (PACs) or Super PACs
Taxpayer Money 

19. 8) When running an effective ad in Win the White House, what must you consider?
Issues that the people of the state supports and opposes
Who is leading in the state
How much time you have left in the campaign

20. 9) Running a negative ad allows you to show that the candidate you are running against…
Agrees with you on the issues
Lacks a strong campaign manager
Supports issues that the voters of a state oppose 

21.  10) Which type of data is most likely to be biased?
Polls and surveys conducted by a candidate’s campaign
Independent polls and surveys (by colleges, newspapers, etc.)
Exit polls at voting places

22. Answers Activity Answer Key
Work through the mini-quiz, asking for whole-group responseS from your class. Click to show the answer before advancing each slide.

23. Candidates do what? When?
Drag the tasks to the best phase of a campaign.
Campaign in person across the country.
Take a stand on the issues.
Pick a political party and jump in!
Run savvy campaign ads.
Fundraise, fundraise, fundraise!
Win delegates during primaries & caucuses.
Keep an eye on your opponent!
Earn your party’s nomination.
Win over 270 Electoral Votes