All candidates for Congress must be at least 25 years of age to become a Representative and at least 30 years of age to become a Senator, hold citizenship for 7 years, and live in the state they will represent. Some states require candidates to collect a certain number of signatures. For example, Florida requires candidates to gather 2,298 signatures. All states require candidates to pay some sort of filing fee. The average state fee to run for the House of representative is $1,465. This fee runs from $100 in states like Alaska to $10,440 in states like Florida. A candidate’s political party may be responsible for paying their filing fee. [2] X Research source
Registering with a political party. If you intend to run with No Party Affiliation in states like Florida, you must file the appropriate paperwork and inform the state’s electoral commission. Providing signatures and other required paperwork to the state you intend to run in and represent. Reporting finances to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) after you raise $5,000 for your campaign. Registering with the FEC within 15 days of raising $5,000 and formally campaigning. In addition, you must name a treasurer for your campaign. Providing financial reports to the FEC every quarter and before primaries and general elections. [3] X Research source
Establish a campaign fundraising committee. This committee could be small or large but must have a designated treasurer. Use direct mail to fundraise. For example, put together a flyer announcing your candidacy and requesting donations and mail it to potential supporters. Hold fundraisers, such as benefit dinners. For example, charge $100 per person to eat at a banquet you will attend. Use the internet to fundraise. Create a website, use social media, and request financial support through emails.
Taxes. Do you support higher taxes, lower taxes, or do you think they should remain the same? Foreign policy. Do you support intervention in global conflicts? Social issues. Key issues like abortion, gender issues, and marijuana legalization may be of interest to your constituents. The environment. Depending on your district, you may need to take a stand on climate change and government regulation that protects the environment. [4] X Research source
Establish a campaign headquarters. This is where you, your staff, volunteers, and others will meet to plan and execute your campaign. You’ll likely need to rent some sort of office space. Recruit volunteers and hire staff. Depending on your election and resources, you may need dozens or even hundreds of volunteers and paid staff. Volunteers, including interns, may help with office tasks such as copying memos or going door-to-door informing voters of your candidacy. Line up experts, polling companies, and others who can provide important advice about running for election in your community. Pick people who will head, lead, and manage your campaign. [5] X Research source
Visit churches, synagogues, and other houses of worship. Talk to civic groups like the Rotary Club, the League of Women Voters, the Lion’s Club, and more. Hold town halls and meetings where voters can ask you questions about your policy positions. Go door-to-door introducing yourself to voters. Have your volunteers and staff put up campaign signs and buy advertising time on radio and television. Convince local civic and political leaders to endorse your candidacy. [6] X Research source
As of 2015, almost all of the 535 members of Congress have a Bachelor’s degree. A little less than half have law degrees. About one hundred had a Master’s degree and another twenty had Doctoral degrees. There is no one educational path to Congress, but a Juris Doctor (required to become a lawyer) is ideal because it is necessary to know how the law works before making them. Other good degrees include Business Administration, Public Administration, Political Science, Economics, International Relations, Public Policy, Public Health, Communications, International Business, and Criminal Justice.
Age. A Representative must be at least twenty-five, while a Senator must be at least thirty. Citizenship. A Representative must be a citizen of the US for at least seven years, while a Senator must be a citizen for at least nine years. Residency. Both Representatives and Senators must be residents of the states they represent.
For example, if the US has a party identification of 55% Democrat to 45% Republican but your district has voted 55% for the Republican candidate the past two cycles, the PVI of your district is R+10, meaning your district is 10 points more Republican than the nation as a whole. If the PVI of your district or state is strongly at odds with your own political leanings, it’s extremely unlikely you’re going to win. If you’re trying to run to “make a statement,” or “send a message,” that’s your own business, but running for a seat in Congress is very hard work. It strains personal and familial relationships, demands countless hours, and can open you up to all manner of embarrassment, humiliation, and antagonism. Think long and hard about whether you want to embark upon a fruitless quest.
If you think you’ve got that “it” factor, the party leadership is weak and disliked in your area, and you are running for an open seat, you might have a shot at pulling out a victory. But it would still be an uphill battle.
An open seat is much easier to win than a seat held by an incumbent. Incumbents are re-elected about 85% of the time. When they aren’t, they’re usually defeated after their first term.
When you’re starting to raise money, hit up your friends and family first. It might make you uncomfortable, but it’s where every fundraising operation begins. And most of the time, they’re happy for you and happy to give. Just tell them why you’re running and the kind of effort required and ask them to chip in. You’ll be amazed at what you come up with. Say something like, “Hey, I’m running for Congress for these reasons. . . I’m going to need to start fundraising right away, and I wanted to know if you could contribute $100 to get me started. "
You can pay canvassers to get signatures for you or you can rely on yourself and a few volunteers (who will probably be your family) to get them. Clearly, paying canvassers is more expensive, but is much quicker. No matter what you do, aim for 150% more signatures than the law requires—it will help make up for invalid signatures.
In Florida, for example, you’ll have to pay a $10,440 to file as a candidate for House or Senate from a major party (although Florida is an outlier in terms of cost).
You’ll need to file the Statement of Candidacy within fifteen days of hitting the $5,000 threshold. The Statement of Candidacy is a simple form to fill out, but you will need to know exactly which district you’re running in and the office you’re running for. If you’ve never run before, leave the space for Federal Election Number blank. Once you’ve filed the Statement of Candidacy, you should open up a bank account on behalf of the committee. File the Statement of Organization within ten days of filing the Statement of Candidacy. The Statement of Organization is a little more complex, because you’ll have to list your committee’s bank account number and designate a committee treasurer and assistant treasurer. These are the only crucial positions in a campaign committee, because the committee cannot receive or spend funds without the authorizations of the treasurer.
If you’ve already tapped your circle of close friends and family, move on to acquaintances, friends of your friends, and donors you’ve met through the party. It’s important to concentrate on gathering enough cash to fund a staff for the next few weeks.
Communications crafts messages, writes speeches, and deals with the media. Data keeps track of voter information, like contact history, neighborhood partisanship and income levels. Political rounds up endorsements from important people and institutions like union leaders, newspapers, and other candidates and deals with party figures like local chairpersons to get surrogates, volunteer help, or donor leads. Field is in charge of directly engaging with voters over the phones, at the doors, and in public spaces. Operations keeps the lights on, the paper in the office, the pens in the desks, and often balances the books and issues payroll. There’s debate about which roles are the most important, but most people are going to want to hire a campaign manager or a fundraiser first. If the candidate is new to electoral politics altogether, a campaign manager should probably be the first hire and the fundraiser second. If the candidate is not new to electoral politics, they might want to hire the fundraiser before all else.
Democrats and Republicans both have separate types of software used by the party, NGP VAN for Democrats and Votes Data Center for Republicans. Party nominees and primary candidates for open seats get access to the databases at a steep discount. There are other types of software other than those used exclusively by the parties, and some are quite good—even better than VAN and rVotes (and more expensive). Of these, Aristotle is thought of as the gold standard. [16] X Research source
To use a recent example, Donald Trump was a master of this. No matter what the news was during the 2016 cycle—good or bad—it was always about Trump. Sometimes it was Trump attacking, sometimes it was Trump issuing a blanket denial to an attack on him, other times it was arguing about a policy that he proposed. No matter what, he kept the conversation focused on him, his character, his temperament, and his solutions.
For example, imagine yourself, a political novice, running for an open seat amidst a long-running corruption scandal going on in your opponent’s party. Your opponent hasn’t been implicated, and you wouldn’t want to accuse her of something that she hasn’t done. But you might say “The other party’s been in power for so long, and it’s been one scandal after another this whole year. Let’s leave the old politics behind. We need a fresh start all around—in this district, in the committee chairs, in the House leadership. What me and my party represent is that fresh start…”
Supplement this by appearing at public events, because that gives reporters (who should theoretically think positively of you) an excuse to give you coverage.
Since your field operation—which is largely managing and recruiting volunteers to conduct voter outreach—is what really drives turnout, a well-developed one can create a movement type of atmosphere and an air of inevitability. It energizes your base and depresses your opponents. Still, you must use your field operation smartly. Use your voter management software to target the most likely voters first.
All forms of paid media are of diminishing effectiveness in this day and time. While TV and radio are still more effective than the others, most studies show that they are really only effective in the last few weeks before the election. Any other form of paid media is of dubious impact at all.
If you live in an early voting state, encourage your voters to vote early. An early vote doesn’t count more than another, but getting the confirmation of the vote is important in and of itself, because that’s one less door to knock on or phone number to call on Election Day.
