How to become President of the United States: a simple guide

right so you want to be President of the United States the leader of the free world someone who gets that lovely Oval Office and your own bowling alley in the basement of White House but wait how do you actually make it to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue how does the whole process from dream to reality actually work so that this music thing doesn't work out you can always run for president well this video is going to explain every single step you need to take to make it to the wire okay it's dying out from scratch and you're trying to get nominated by a party not currently in the White House how do you even know if you're in with a shot for a start legally you have to have been born in the United States lived there for 14 years and be over 35 and if you don't tick all those boxes sorry you can't be President that's me out for staff I'm under 35 so what job exactly puts you in the best position to run for the White House well it helps if you've either been a lawyer all you've served in the military in fact of all the people who've been president only three of them have not done one of those two things but some have had some more unusual jobs Ronald Reagan it was a former Hollywood star Andrew Johnson he was a tailor and Jimmy Carter he ran a peanut farm but one thing that really helps is having held some kind of political office but nearly every president has except of course businessman and reality star Donald Trump right your next big task is raising money and lots of it Trump and his backers spent about 73 million dollars in getting the Republican nomination in 2016 including 50 million dollars of his own cash and Democrat hopeful Bernie Sanders raised nearly 35 million dollars in the final three months of 2019 mostly from grassroots donations I believe in democracy not billionaires owning the system our campaign is funded by the working people of this country right so you've got some cash in the bank and you're now ready to launch a campaign you're gonna need to make sure you start early Barrack Obama announced his candidacy in February 2007 nearly two years before election day I stand for you today to announce my candidacy for president that's because at the beginning of the election year your party will hold votes in all 50 states to decide who will be their candidate these are the primaries state by state mini elections now some have closed primaries that means only registered members of a party vote but some have open primaries where any member of the public even someone who's a registered supporter of the opposing party can take part and then others use caucuses now they're basically big public meetings where voters discussed their choices openly and then they decide who they want to support now this is where it gets really exciting because if you win in Iowa the first caucus you can get momentum and go on and win the whole thing that's what happened for Jimmy Carter in 1976 he came out of nowhere and won it all the same too for Barrack Obama in 2008 done what the cynics said we couldn't do it but remember winning Iowa doesn't always mean you're gonna win the whole thing because the Republican person who won in 2008 2012 and 2016 did not go on to be Republican nominee come February or March you'll face one or more super Tuesday's when dozens of states are up for grabs in a single day 12 states over 1600 delegates could it all come down to this one night it'll be huge and then by the summer it will be pretty clear which candidate is out in front but it's not over yet there's another important milestone the National Convention it's a party's celebrating a popular president and a big lead in the polls that's where your party officially announces its nominee through delegates from each state but wait what's a delegate well they're people chosen to represent their state at the convention and they cast votes for the presidential nominee they make their decision based on who won the primary or the caucus in their state but remember just because you won a caucus or primary doesn't mean you get all the delegates from that state decided by each day depending on their own specific rules so let's imagine you secure an overall majority of delegates at the convention well congratulations you're now the presidential candidate for your party by humbly and gratefully accept your nomination for president of the United States and the race for the White House can really begin now if you thought you'd spend loads of dosh in the primaries just wait to see how much you're gonna need for the rest of the campaign in the final six weeks of the 2016 race Hillary Clinton and her backers spent three hundred and sixty million dollars that's more than she spent in the first six months of the year and she's still lost so you have to make sure you've got deep deep pockets and you'd better be good in front of a camera too because there were going to be three big TV debates coming up now the first time a presidential debate was held was back in 1960 when John F Kennedy and Richard Nixon went head-to-head in front of an audience of 66 million people the battle was considered a defeat for Nixon who was famously a bit sweaty under the lights and he went on to narrowly lose the election and the TV debates had given us some memorable moments down the years like Ronald Reagan's quip about age when even his opponent chuckled you already are the oldest president in history I will not make age an issue of this campaign I am NOT going to exploit for political purposes my opponents youth and inexperience and Donald Trump's strange body language around Hillary Clinton serious health problems and number three the most important thing about the debate is just to make sure that you don't mess them up all that's left now is polling day weirdly though you're not trying to necessarily get the most votes from the public your aim is actually to win the most votes in the electoral college and here's how it works whichever candidate gets a majority of the 538 electors wins the white house so the magic number is 274 wait a minute why 538 well each state is given electrons based on the number of people it sends to Congress so California has the highest population about 40 million people and therefore based on the most representatives to Washington along with the two senators that every state gets add that all up and California has 55 electoral college votes the most in the country on the other hand seven states along with the District of Columbia only get three electoral college votes because they have smaller populations and therefore send fewer representatives to Washington so here's the thing it's not necessarily about winning the most votes from the people it's actually about winning the most of these electors let's take Hillary Clinton's loss in 2016 she won nearly three million more votes than Donald Trump across the country but Donald Trump's boats were concentrated in the right places where the electoral college numbers could get him past that magic 270 so take Michigan for example Trump only one here by 0.2 three percent so a four point eight million votes cast in that state he won by just ten thousand more but crucially he took all 16 electoral college votes the same thing happened in Pennsylvania 6 million votes were cast Trump won by just 40,000 votes but again he took all 20 electoral college votes so there it is if you want to be President all you need to do is this have a good background being a lawyer or a veteran helps a lot and make sure you have some decent political experience unless you'll present Trump of course then hit the ground running and raise about a billion dollars from the public probably big business small donations can work and maybe top it up with your own cash if you happen to be so lucky then you can have to crisscross the whole country shake hands and kiss babies in those key early primary and caucus states so that you can gain momentum going into the convention and then you've got to do it all over again crisscross the country shake hands and kiss babies as you gear up for the November election and don't forget it's not about the number of votes from the public that you get it's where you get them from Donald Trump has won the state of Pennsylvania that is the race frankly so focused on the electoral college and how you can get over that magic 270 to win and that's it you're in the white house enjoy for the first year or so because you're relación campaign will basically begin very very soon and you have to do all that all over again you

Channel: Channel 4 News

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Keywords: Channel 4 News, US presidents, US presidential debate, white house bowling alley, white house, united states president election, presidential candidates, presidential primaries explained, iowa caucus, iowa democratic debate, us elections, us elections explained, us elections 2020, how do us elections work, how do primary elections work, us election system, us presidential elections, primaries and caucuses explained, primaries and caucuses, primaries explained

Id: vsYclkV6RPY

Length: 9min 1sec (541 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 03 2020