How to Become a Congressman

Video Transcript

"My name is Matthew Burbank, I'm an associate professor at the University of Utah, and I want to talk to you a little bit about how to become a member of Congress. So, to become a member of Congress, you would need to run for Congress and get elected. And, that generally what that means is you need to be a resident of the state, and you need to be constitutionally eligible, that is you need to meet the minimum age requirements. Other than that, however, usually the process is simply a matter of getting on the ballot, and typically that's done through the political parties. So you run in a party primary process to get yourself on the ballot with that party's name attached. Or, in some cases, you may run as an independent or a third party candidate. And states have various procedures to allow you to get on the ballot as an independent, or as a third party candidate. Once you've gotten yourself into the process of the elections, then what you need to do is convince people, indeed, that you should be elected to Congress. They should vote for you. And, that is ordinarily done by...by the kinds of issues that you're going to present, as well as the kind of background that you have to be able to represent people in that state."