American Politics Today - Essentials (3rd Ed)

HOW DO AMERICAN ELECTIONS WORK?| 197

CONSTITUTIONAL REQUIREMENTS FOR CANDIDATES

NUTS & bolts

7. 1

Offi ce Minimum Age

Residency

Requirement Term of Offi ce

President 35 Born in the United States Four years

Senator 30 Resident of state; U.S.
citizen for at least 9 years

Six years

Representative 25 Resident of state; U.S.
citizen for at least 7 years

Two years

early on attract contributions, campaign workers, endorsements, and additiona l
media coverage, all of which enable them to move on to subsequent primaries or
caucuses. For many years Iowa and New Hampshire have held the fi rst presiden-
tial nomination contests in January, with the Iowa caucus taking place a week
before the New Hampshire primary. These states’ position at the beginning of the
process is largely a historical accident, but party offi cials from other states often
complain about the disproportionate infl uence of these states. For example, in
2012, Rick Santorum’s emergence as an early challenger to Mitt Romney was the
product of Santorum’s surprisingly strong showing in the Iowa caucuses, which
was due to strong support from evangelical voters in Iowa. In contrast, Santorum
did far worse a week later in the New Hampshire primary, where there are far
fewer evangelical voters. Without his early Iowa success Santorum would likely
have dropped out of the race in January and would never have emerged as Rom-
ney’s principal opponent.
The parties’ national committees can issue rules and requirements about the
timing of state presidential primaries, but state law sets the election dates, mean-
ing that a national committee’s directives may not be followed. As a result, the
2012 nomination process was roughly the same as in previous years, with Iowa
and New Hampshire holding the initial contests, in early January 2012, followed
by primaries in South Carolina and Florida later in the month, and the remaining
contests beginning in February and continuing to June.

THE NATIONAL CONVENTION

Presidential nominating conventions happen late in the summer of an election
year. Their main task is to select the party’s presidential nominee, although the
vote at the convention is largely a formality, as in all recent contests one candi-
date has emerged from the nomination process with a clear majority of delegates
and wins the nomination on the fi rst ballot.^10 To get the nomination, a candidate
needs the support of a majority of the delegates. If no candidate receives a major-
ity after the fi rst round of voting at the convention, the voting continues until
someone does. When a sitting president runs for re-election, as Barack Obama
did in 2012, he typically faces little opposition for the party’s general-election
nomination.