Video: How to Become President of the USA
Explains the presidential election process from beginning to end.
The Requirements
Lots of people dream of becoming President of the United States. But to officially run for office, a person needs to meet three basic requirements established by the U.S. Constitution (Article 2, Section 1).
A Presidential candidate must be:
- A natural born citizen (U.S. citizen from birth)
- At least 35 years old and
- A U.S. resident (permanently lives in the U.S.) for at least 14 years
Step 1: Primaries and Caucuses
People with similar ideas usually belong to the same political party. The two main parties in the U.S. are Republican and Democrat.
Many people want to be President. They campaign around the country and compete to try to win their party’s nomination.
In caucuses, party members meet, discuss, and vote for who they think would be the best party candidate.
In primaries, party members vote in a state election for the candidate they want to represent them in the general election.
Step 2: National Conventions and General Election
After the primaries and caucuses, each major party, Democrat and Republican, holds a national convention to select a Presidential nominee.
The party’s Presidential nominee announces his or her choice for Vice President.
The Presidential candidates campaign throughout the country to win the support of the general population.
On election day, people in every state cast their vote .
Step 3: The Electoral College
When people cast their vote, they are actually voting for a group of people called electors.
The number of electors each state gets is equal to its total number of Senators and Representatives in Congress. A total of 538 electors form the Electoral College.
Each elector casts one vote following the general election. The candidate who gets 270 votes or more wins.
The newly elected President and Vice President are then inaugurated on January 20th.
Overview of the Presidential Election Process
An election for President of the United States occurs every four years on Election Day, held the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. The next Presidential election will be held on November 3, 2020.
The election process begins with the primary elections and caucuses and moves to nominating conventions, during which political parties each select a nominee to unite behind. The nominee also announces a Vice Presidential running mate at this time. The candidates then campaign across the country to explain their views and plans to voters and participate in debates with candidates from other parties.
During the general election, Americans head to the polls to cast their vote for President. But the tally of those votes—the popular vote—does not determine the winner. Instead, Presidential elections use the Electoral College. To win the election, a candidate must receive a majority of electoral votes. In the event no candidate receives the majority, the House of Representatives chooses the President and the Senate chooses the Vice President.
The Presidential election process follows a typical cycle:
- Spring of the year before an election – Candidates announce their intentions to run.
- Summer of the year before an election through spring of the election year – Primary and caucus debates take place.
- January to June of election year – States and parties hold primaries and caucuses.
- July to early September – Parties hold nominating conventions to choose their candidates.
- September and October – Candidates participate in Presidential debates.
- Early November – Election Day
- December – Electors cast their votes in the Electoral College.
- Early January of the next calendar year – Congress counts the electoral votes.
- January 20 – Inauguration Day
For an in-depth look at the federal election process in the U.S., check out USA In Brief: ELECTIONS.
Infographic Poster: How to Become President of the United States
Explains the election process. Download a free copy. Use this lesson plan.
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How to Become President of the United States
The U.S. Constitution's Requirements for a Presidential Candidate:
- At least 35 years old
- A natural born citizen of the United States
- A resident of the United States for 14 years
Step 1: Primaries and Caucuses
There are many people who want to be president. Each of these people have their own ideas about how our government should work. People with similar ideas belong to the same political party. This is where primaries and caucuses come in. Candidates from each political party campaign throughout the country to win the favor of their party members.
- Caucus: In a caucus, party members select the best candidate through a series of discussions and votes.
- Primary: In a primary, party members vote for the best candidate that will represent them in the general election.
Step 2: National Conventions
Each party holds a national convention to finalize the selection of one presidential nominee. At each convention, the presidential candidate chooses a running-mate (vice presidential candidate).
Step 3: General Election
The presidential candidates campaign throughout the country in an attempt to win the support of the general population.
People in every state across the country vote for one president and one vice president. When people cast their vote, they are actually voting for a group of people known as electors.
Step 4: Electoral College
In the Electoral College system, each state gets a certain number of electors based on its total number of representatives in Congress.
Each elector casts one electoral vote following the general election; there are a total of 538 electoral votes. The candidate that gets more than half (270) wins the election.
The president-elect and vice president-elect take the oath of office and are inaugurated in January.
Definitions:
- Caucus: A meeting of the local members of a political party to select delegates to the national party convention. A caucus is a substitute for a primary election.
- Delegate: A person authorized to represent others as an elected representative to a political party conference.
- Elector: A member of the electoral college.
- Electoral College: The voters of each state, and the District of Columbia, vote for electors to be the authorized constitutional members in a presidential election.
- Natural Born Citizen: Someone born with U.S. citizenship includes any child born "in" the United States, the children of United States citizens born abroad, and those born abroad of one citizen parent.
- Primary: An election where voters select candidates for an upcoming general election. Winning candidates will have delegates sent to the national party convention as their party’s U.S. presidential nominee.
U.S. Constitutional Requirements for Presidential Candidates
The President must:
- Be a natural-born citizen of the United States
- Be at least 35 years old
- Have been a resident of the United States for 14 years
Any person who meets these requirements can declare his or her candidacy for President at any time. Candidates must register with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) once they receive contributions or make expenditures in excess of $5,000. Within 15 days of reaching that $5,000 threshold, candidates must file a Statement of Candidacy with the FEC authorizing a principal campaign committee to raise and spend funds on their behalf.
Presidential Primaries and Caucuses
Before the general election, most candidates for President go through a series of state primaries and caucuses. Though primaries and caucuses are run differently, they both serve the same purpose—to allow the states to help choose the political parties’ nominees for the general election.
- State primaries are run by state and local governments. Voting occurs through secret ballot.
- Caucuses are private meetings run by political parties. In most, participants divide themselves into groups according to the candidate they support, with undecided voters forming into a group of their own. Each group then gives speeches supporting its candidate and tries to persuade others to join its group. At the end of the caucus, party organizers count the voters in each candidate's group and calculate how many delegates each candidate has won.
- Both primaries and caucuses can be conducted as “open,” “closed,” or some hybrid of the two.
- During an open primary or caucus, people can vote for a candidate of any political party.
- During a closed primary or caucus, participants must be registered with a political party to vote for one of its candidates.
- “Semi-open” and “semi-closed” primaries and caucuses are variations of the two main types.
Awarding Delegates
At stake in each primary or caucus is a certain number of delegates or individuals who represent their states at national party conventions. The candidate who receives a majority of his or her party’s delegates wins the nomination.
The parties have different numbers of total delegates due to the complex rules involved in awarding them. The requirements combine national and state political party rules and practices with aspects of federal and state election laws.
Each party also has some unpledged delegates or superdelegates. These delegates are not bound to a specific candidate heading into the national convention.
When the primaries and caucuses are over, most political parties hold a national convention during which the winning candidate receives a nomination.
For information about your state's Presidential primary or caucuses, contact your state election office or the political party of your choice.
National Conventions
After the primaries and caucuses, most political parties hold national conventions to finalize their choice for their Presidential and Vice Presidential nominees.
The national conventions typically confirm the candidate who has already won the required number of delegates through the primaries and caucuses. However, if no candidate has received the majority of a party’s delegates, the convention becomes the stage for choosing that party’s Presidential nominee.
Delegates: Types and Numbers Required
Read an overview of the delegate process for becoming the nominee of the Republican or Democratic party in a presidential election now.
Some parties require a specific number of delegates a candidate needs to win his or her party’s nomination.
There are two main types of delegates:
- Pledged, or bound, delegates, who are required to support the candidate to whom they were awarded through the primary or caucus process
- Unpledged, or unbound delegates, or superdelegates, who are free to support any Presidential candidate of their choosing
Brokered and Contested Conventions
If no nominee has a party’s majority of delegates going into its convention, then the delegates pick their Presidential candidate in a brokered or contested convention. Pledged delegates usually have to vote for the candidate they were awarded to in the first round of voting, while unpledged delegates don't. Pledged delegates may be allowed to choose any candidate in subsequent rounds of voting. Balloting continues until one nominee receives the required majority to win.
General Election Campaigning
General election campaigning begins after a single nominee is chosen from each political party, via primaries, caucuses, and national conventions. These candidates travel the country, explaining their views and plans to the general population and trying to win the support of potential voters. Rallies, debates, and advertising are a big part of general election campaigning.
Electoral College
Unlike in other U.S. elections, the President and Vice President are not elected directly by the people. Instead, they’re chosen by “electors” through a process called the Electoral College.
The idea of using electors comes from the Constitution. The nation’s founders saw it as a compromise between electing the President by a popular vote among citizens and electing the President in Congress.
The Electors
The number of electors each state gets is determined by how many members of Congress (House and Senate) the state has. Including Washington, D.C.’s three electors, there are a total of 538 electors in all. U.S. territory residents don’t vote in the Presidential election and are not represented in the Electoral College. View the distribution of electors by state.
Each state’s political parties choose their own slate of potential electors. Who is chosen to be an elector, how, and when varies by state.
After you cast your ballot for President, your vote goes to a statewide tally. In 48 states and Washington, D.C., the winner gets all of the electoral votes for that state. This means his or her party’s electors in that state will vote in the Electoral College. Maine and Nebraska assign their electors using a proportional system called the Congressional District Method.
A candidate needs the vote of at least 270 electors—more than half—to win the Presidential election. For a very simple explanation of this process, check out this Kids.gov video.
Although the actual vote of the Electoral College takes place in each state on December 19, in most cases, a projected winner can be announced on election night.
The Constitution doesn’t require electors to vote according to the popular vote of the people they represent. But it’s rare for an elector not to follow the people’s—and their party’s—choice.
Special Situations
Winning the Popular Vote but Losing the Election
Though uncommon, it is possible to win the Electoral College, but lose the popular vote. That means that a candidate can win a combination of states and reach the 270 electors mark without winning the majority of votes across the country. This has happened five times in American elections, most recently in 2016.
What Happens if No Candidate Gets 270 Electoral Votes?
In the rare event that no candidate gets the needed 270 electoral votes, the decision would go to the House of Representatives, who would vote to elect the new President from among the top three candidates. A similar process would take place in the Senate to elect the Vice President from among the top two candidates. The only time this has happened was during the 1824 election when John Quincy Adams received the most votes in the House of Representatives after no candidate won a majority of the Electoral College.
How to Change the Electoral College
Because the Electoral College process is part of the U.S. Constitution, it would be necessary to pass a Constitutional amendment to change this system. For more information, contact your U.S. Senator or your U.S. Representative.
Inauguration Day
Inauguration Day occurs every four years on January 20 (or January 21 if January 20 falls on a Sunday) at the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, DC. On this federal holiday, the President-elect and Vice-President-elect are sworn in and take office.
The Vice-President-elect is sworn in first, and repeats the same oath of office, in use since 1884, as Senators, Representatives, and other federal employees:
"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God."
Around noon, the President-elect recites the following oath, in accordance with Article II, Section I of the U.S. Constitution:
"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."
The inauguration is planned by the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies. Nine activities typically occur:
- Morning Worship Service
- Procession to the Capitol
- Vice President's Swearing-In Ceremony
- President's Swearing-In Ceremony
- Inaugural Address
- Departure of the Outgoing President
- Inaugural Luncheon
- Inaugural Parade
- Inaugural Ball
For more information on the history of presidential inaugurations, explore the inaugural materials from the collections of the Library of Congress.
Last Updated: August 10, 2017
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