Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hey, brain Stuff, Christian Sagger. Here, here's some good news for the Americans out there dreaming of being president. It turns out the job requirements are surprisingly simple. You just have to be a natural born US citizen thirty five years or older who's lived in the US for the past fourteen years. But of course there's another factor here, money. So how much does it actually cost to run for president? Well,
good news, registering as a presidential candidate isn't actually that expensive. First, you need to fill out, surprise, a government form. It's called the Statement of Candidacy or FEC Form two, and you're required to submit this within fifteen days of becoming a candidate. So when does an average Jane or Joe
become a candidate? According to the FEDS, you're automatically a candidate once you're team has either received five thousand dollars in contributions or racked up five thousand dollars in campaign expenses. You can view the list of candidates online and it's a long one. In June, the FBC listed one thousand,
seven hundred and seventy two candidates. That's right, you are just five thousand dollars away from joining such influential Americans as Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Obi One Jedi, Kenobi, and Nicki Minaj. Yeah. Really so. Hypothetically, if you've paid five thousand in campaign costs, you mail the form and we include the cost of the stamp, you're looking at
just over five grand. That's that's not so bad. But remember there's a big difference between running for president and actually winning, so to campaign successfully, you're gonna need more than five thousand bucks. Your next step will be getting on state ballots, and each state may have different rules outlining how you can do this. Unless you're already established,
you'll need petitions. For example, in Democratic candidates needed either one percent or five hundred signatures from Democrats in each of California's districts, but there were over fifty districts. This means you'll need a volunteer campaign, along with advertising and probably a paid staff. While it's possible to be a write in candidate, it's not probable that you'd be able
to garner any significant numbers that way. Caucus states like Iowa just require enough people to show up and cast a ballot for you, but there are hundreds of caucuses in Iowa alone. You'll need a strategy to reach these voters, which again means you'll need a staff. You'll also need money for advertising, travel, and more. The cost of pizza for volunteers alone could run into the tens of thousands of dollars over time. By this point, the campaign has
already become mass of the expensive. Luckily, you've got contributors. Virtually no viable candidate is going to be self funded. Instead, the average would be President receives contributions from individuals, parties, corporations, political action committees, and so on. Uncle Sam has different limits on how much money these entities can contribute during the primary and general elections. While every campaign is different, there are some definite trends. For instance, each recent campaign
seems to be more expensive than the last. According to the FBC, President Obama's twelve re election campaign raised six hundred and eighty three point five million dollars. Contributions from the Democratic Party and other outside groups raised the total to around one point one billion dollars. The entire twelve campaign, all parties combined, was estimated to cost two point six
billion dollars. Pundits fundraisers and other policy wonks predicted the twenty sixteen campaign would top these numbers, with the Clinton campaign alone rumored to possibly reach one point five to two billion dollars. These numbers lead speculators like the Economist to predict that the election may eventually ring in at an unprecedented five billion dollars. Does this mean you have
to be a multimillionaire to become commander in chief? No, but it does mean you'll need millions of someone's dollars to ensure your voice is heard amid the din of
all the other candidates vying for the public's attention. In two thousand four, George W. Bush spent three hundred and sixty seven million dollars for re election, while the John Kerry campaign spent three hundred twenty eight In two thousand and eight, the first Obama campaign spent seven hundred and thirty million dollars, with the McCain side spending three d
and thirty three. As we saw earlier, the Obama re election push cost six hundred and eighty three million dollars compared to the Mitt Romney campaigns four hundred and thirty three million. Now do you notice a pattern In recent elections, it seems the folks who spent the most ended up in the White House. If this trend continues and you want to be president in six or later, well either start saving or start writing to your supporters. You're gonna
need all the help you can get. Check out the brain stuff channel on YouTube, and for more on this and thousands of other topics, visit how stuff works dot com.