1. Road to Presidency

2. Meet Formal and Informal Requirements:
Formal Requirements: Constitutional requirements for presidency
35 years or older
Natural Born Citizen
U.S. Resident for 14 years
Informal Requirements: unofficial criteria that have mattered to the American voting public.
College Educated
Prior Experience
Clean criminal record
Backed by Major Political Party

3. Pre-Candidacy process
Establish exploratory committees
Exploratory committees are formed to poll citizens and gauge the level of success they are likely to have if they formally launch a Presidential bid.
Form PACS/Super PACS
PAC stands for “Political Action Committee” A new type of PAC was created after the U.S. Court of Appeals decision in Speech Now v. FEC in These PACs make no contributions to candidates or parties. They do, however make independent expenditures in federal races - running ads or sending mail or communicating in other ways with messages that specifically advocate the election or defeat of a specific candidate. 

4. Register with the FEC
Registration is required once a candidate has received $5000 worth of contributions.
The FEC stands for “Federal Election Committee”. They are the government agency which runs elections and collects ballots.

5. Invisible Primary Debates

6. Party Primary
The period between a candidate’s announcement that they are running for president and when the first primary votes are cast. “Also known as the campaign trail”
Begin building an organization team
Begin fundraising and campaigning
Develop “winning” strategy
Town Hall Meetings
Seek endorsements
Debates

7. The Primary Season
Primary season helps to narrow down list of candidates to 1 Democrat and 1 Republican in preparation for the General Election.
Usually begins in late January and lasts until mid June.
Calendar: Iowa caucus, New Hampshire Primary, South Carolina Primary
Super Tuesday: a big group of states vote on super Tuesday.

8. Types of Primaries
Caucus: a meeting of voters who vote for the candidate of their choice by straw poll.
Open Primary: Voters select party ballots once they arrive at the polls.
Closed Primary: Voters have to pre-registered with a given party to vote.
Blanket primary: Voters are not required to identify with a particular party and can make choices without regard to party lines.

10. The Nominating Convention
A big national pep rally for each of the base supporters.
Candidates will accept their party nomination and become the candidate for the General Election.
Vice-President is usually chosen by then.
President is supposed to be someone who will “fill gaps” in a Presidents resume.

11. General Election:
The election of a new is called the “General Election” and is always conducted on the Tuesday following the first Monday of November.

12. The Electoral College
The Electoral College consists of 538 electors. A majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect the President. Your state’s entitled allotment of electors equals the number of members in its Congressional delegation: one for each member in the House of Representatives plus two for your Senators

14. Electoral Swing States
Presidential candidates often spend the majority of their time campaigning in 5-6 “swing” states.
Swing States refer to states that do not historically vote with one party over the other. Some of these include: Ohio, Florida, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin (and more recently Georgia)

15. Why do some states split electoral votes differently?
It’s because of the way most Democratic primaries are structured.
Elections in most Democratic systems can be:
Winner-take-all: The Winner takes the entire prize
Proportional: The winners proportionally share the prize
Winners are then chosen by either…
Plurality: the person who wins is the person who gets the most votes
Majority: the person who wins is the person who gets the majority of the vote (51%)
Can you guess how elections work in the United States?

17. Inauguration