How to Run for Congress

Running for Congress: the Basics

Meet federal and state requirements. Candidates for Congress must meet certain conditions required by federal and state governments. At their most basic level, these requirements are outlined in the United States Constitution, state constitutions, and federal and state election laws. 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.

Fill out important paperwork. There is a variety of paperwork any candidate and their campaign must fill out and submit to various governmental authorities. This paperwork settles legalities and formalities associated with running for Congress. The most important paperwork includes: 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.

Raise money. After verifying that you meet basic requirements to run for Congress, you need to raise the money needed to fund your campaign. Without raising money, your campaign will never get off the ground and you’ll likely meet electoral failure. To raise money: 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.

Take a stand on important issues. Before campaigning, you’ll have to take a position on issues that are important to people who live in your congressional district. This is important, as your opponents, the press, and voters will want to know where you stand. While every district has key issues that are extremely important to voters there, many issues transcend districts. Some include: 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.

Work with others to manage your campaign. Without an organized campaign, you won’t be able to get the word out about your candidacy. Thus, you need to spend time, effort, and money putting together a campaign organization and apparatus that will be able to get you votes and spread your message. 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.

Campaign actively. Campaigning is perhaps the most important part of running for Congress. This takes a lot of work, though, as you’ll have to visit different groups of constituents in your district. In the end, active campaigns that can reach many people are those that are most likely to succeed. 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.

Getting Your Foot in the Door

Get an education. Although there is no specific educational prerequisite for serving in either the House or the Senate, both chambers of Congress are engaged in the writing of laws and the crafting of public policy. The actions of these lawmakers have real-time consequences on large numbers of people, and many of the skills required of legislators are too important to learn on the job. 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.

Meet the minimum Federal requirements. There are three Constitutionally mandated requirements to serve in the House of Representatives or the Senate, and they are the exclusive qualifications for the office. These are: 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.

Pick the right district—or state. It doesn’t really matter how charismatic, good looking, or well-funded you are if you aren’t running in an area where you can be successful. Some areas (districts or states) are highly partisan, some lean in the direction of one party or another, and others are toss-ups. The partisan loyalty of an area can be measured by its Partisan Voting Index, or PVI. The PVI of a jurisdiction indicates how much more partisan it is compared to the nation as a whole. 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.

Get the support of your party. Political parties provide support with fundraising, get-out-the-vote efforts, volunteers, and a rich network of individuals who can help you win your race. The instances of a non-incumbent running against their own party and winning are vanishingly small, and the candidate would almost certainly have a special quality (like celebrity) giving them a special edge. 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.

Don’t run against an incumbent. An incumbent is an individual who holds an office. Whoever currently occupies the seat you’re looking at running for is the incumbent. When an incumbent retires, is impeached, appointed to another office, dies, or is imprisoned, the seat will vacate. That makes it an “open seat.” 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.

Beginning Your Campaign

Raise money. In most (27) states you’ll have to pay something to even become a legitimate candidate. And filing fees are only the beginning of an array of expenses. The average House race cost more than $1.6 million in 2012. Stretched over the course of a typical election season, that’s about $2,000 per day. If you’re really serious about making a run for Congress, you need to think about fundraising before virtually anything else. Time to hit the phones. 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."

Get the requisite signatures. In many states (27), you’ll need to obtain a certain number of signatures endorsing your run in order to file as a candidate. Check and see how many you’ll need at https://ballotpedia.org/Filing_requirements_for_congressional_candidates. 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.

Pay the state filing fee. Once you’ve obtained the necessary signatures (if you live in a state requiring them), go ahead and register as a candidate with your state’s board of elections. Pay whatever filing fee you need to pay in order to formally register. These state filing fees vary widely in cost, but in some states can be considerable. 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).

Register with the FEC. Once you’ve received or spent at least $5,000 on your campaign, you’re required to register as a candidate with the Federal Election Commission, or FEC. Registration is a two-step process. First you file a Statement of Candidacy, then you file a Statement of Organization. The former authorizes you to form a principal campaign committee (which will technically be what is raising and spending donations, not you), while the latter informs the FEC about the committee’s relevant details. 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.

Raise more money. Once you’ve made your major filings, you’ll probably need to double up on your fundraising efforts, because it’s very difficult for most candidates to meet their fundraising targets in the beginning of the campaign. After all, you’re going to need to hire staff as soon as possible, and staff like to get paid. 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.

Recruit a staff. While the candidate is the single most important part of a campaign, the staff as a collective entity might be just as important. Good staffs have propped up bad candidates and bad staffs have sunk good candidates. Campaign staff fall into the following categories: fundraising, communications, data, political, field, and operations. They are overseen by a campaign manager. 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.

Buy voter management software. Voter management software is a key tool in today’s political world. It allows you to isolate households by income, likely race, party affiliation, voting frequency, and much more. It also keeps track of phone numbers, addresses, and the history of contacts from the campaign to the voter. 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.

Running Your Campaign

Define the issues. You want to be the one defining the issues at all times. Constantly responding to your opponents is a quick way to blend into the background and seem smaller in stature than your opponents. 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.

Attack without being negative. Very few people can aggressively attack their opponents without becoming unlikeable in the process. That’s not to say it can’t happen. Sometimes a person’s behavior is so odious that righteous anger is the only response, but that’s rare. It’s much safer to attack your opponent through implication than it is to openly attack. You want to highlight your good qualities while leaving your opponent’s bad qualities understood. 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…”

Reach out to media. Relative to advertising, media have more influence on campaigns than ever before. The best kind of exposure you can get is positive coverage in the news (earned media). It pays to forge relationships with reporters in your area early and cultivate them often, because it increases the likelihood of positive earned media. Give them early access to stories, the occasional leak and several rounds of free drinks. Supplement this by appearing at public events, because that gives reporters (who should theoretically think positively of you) an excuse to give you coverage.

Cultivate a volunteer base. Having an army of volunteers seems more typical of a presidential campaign than a congressional campaign, because congressional races have less money and are usually less competitive. However, a congressional campaign investing in the type of field operation that can recruit a lot of volunteers is a powerful statement in and of itself. 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.

Pay for media. Once you’ve done all you can to frame the narrative, develop your field operations and create good relationships with the media, you should turn your attention to paid media. Paid media includes television and radio ads, yard signs, mailers, billboards, and any other type of political advertisement. 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.

Get out the votes. When Election Day comes, it’s time to get your voters to the polls. The volunteers you’ve recruited during the campaign season should knock on as many doors and make as many last minute phone calls reminding people to vote as they can. 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.