How to become President
Road to the White House
Requirements
- 35 years of age
- Resident within the United States for 14 years
- Natural born Citizen of the United States
Primary's and Caucuses
To become president, you first need to be elected as your party's candidate. To decide who will be the two party's final candidate, each state holds primary's or caucuses in the beginning of the election year to gain delegates, starting with Iowa. In Primary's, people vote individually on a ballot while at caucuses, their is a lot of discussions and debates while voters try and convince others to vote for the same candidate as them.
Helpful Tip
Sense states hold their primary's and caucus's on different nights, it is a good idea to go to the closest upcoming states first, to try and gain votes from your party from that state. Know popular views in different states and make the people from each state feel like an important part to our country. If you skip over or don't bother with certain states, it will make you look like you don't care about the people there, and will cost you their votes.
Republican National Convention in 2012
Democratic National Convention in 2012
Caucus V.S. Primary states
The states highlighted blue are the states that hold caucus's and the yellow highlighted states have primaries.
National Convention
The next step in the road to the presidency is the National Convention. This is where each party officially selects which candidate they want to run for them in the presidential race. It is a good outline of each party's beliefs and views on issues. At the Convention, each presidential candidate chooses who will be their vice president.
General Election
After the National Convention, the chosen candidates go around the country campaigning and trying to gain the approval and votes of as many American's as they can up until the night of the General Election. The General Election is where everyone in the country votes for which candidate they wish to take the white house. The public votes for one president, and one vice president.
Helpful Tip
If you have been chosen as your party's candidate after the National Convention, make sure to travel all around the country to as many different states and people as you can. If you get around to more places, it will look like you care and will help you gain more people's votes before the General Election.
Electoral College
The last step on the road to presidency is the Electoral College. It is a system of votes where each state gets a number of electors. Each voter cast a ballot for one candidate following the General Election, and which ever candidate has the majority of votes in each state receives that states electors. The number of electors each state gets is based on their representation in Congress. There is a total of 538 electors in the United States, and to win, a candidate must get at least 270 to secure the presidency. Whoever gets to 270 electors first will be the next president of the United States.