172 PART Two • ThE PoliTiCs oF AmERiCAn DEmoCRACy
Presidential Primary
A statewide primary
election of delegates
to a political party’s
national convention, held
to determine a party’s
presidential nominee.ThE TwEnTy-FiRsT-CEnTuRy
CAmPAign
The presidential campaign provides the most colorful and exciting look at candidates and
how they prepare to compete for office—in this instance, the highest office in the land.
The men and women who wanted to be the Republican candidate in the 2012 presidential
campaign faced a long and obstacle-filled path. First, they needed to raise sufficient funds
to tour the nation—particularly the states with early presidential primaries—to see if
they had enough local supporters. They needed funds to create an organization and to
win primary votes. Finally, when nominated as the party’s candidate, the winner required
funds to finance a successful campaign for president. Always, at every turn, there was the
question of whether there were enough funds to effectively compete against their oppo-
nents, and eventually against President Barack Obama.who is Eligible?
There are few constitutional restrictions on who can be elected to national office in the
United States. As detailed in the Constitution, the formal requirements are as follows:- President. Must be a natural-born citizen, have attained the age of thirty-five years,
and be a resident of the country for fourteen years by the time of inauguration. - Vice president. Must meet the same requirements as the president and also not be a
resident of the same state as the president.^1 - Senator. Must be a citizen for at least nine years, have attained the age of thirty by
the time of taking office, and be a resident of the state from which elected. - Representative. Must be a citizen for at least seven years, have attained the age of twenty-
five by the time of taking office, and be a resident of the state from which elected.
The qualifications for state legislators are set by state constitutions and likewise
include age, place of residence, and citizenship. (Usually, the requirements for the upper
chamber of a legislature are somewhat higher than those for the lower chamber.) The
legal qualifications for serving as governor or in other state offices are similar.who Runs?
In spite of these minimal legal qualifications for office at both the national and the state
levels, a quick look at the slate of candidates in any election—or at the current members
of Congress—will reveal that not all segments of the population enjoy these opportuni-
ties equally. Holders of political office in the United States have been predominantly white
and male. Until the twentieth century, presidential candidates were exclusively of northern
European origin and of Protestant heritage.^2 Laws that effectively denied voting rights
made it impossible to elect African American public officials in many areas in which African
Americans constituted a significant portion of the population. As a result of the passage of
major civil rights legislation in the 1960s, however, the number of African American public
officials has increased throughout the United States, and in a groundbreaking vote, the
nation elected an African American president in 2008.- Technically, a presidential and a vice-presidential candidate can be from the same state, but if they
are, one of the two must forfeit the electoral votes of their home state. - A number of early presidents were Unitarian. The Unitarian Church is not Protestant, but it is his-
torically rooted in the Protestant tradition.
LO1: Discuss who runs for office
and how campaigns are managed.
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