Tex Gov Elections and Campaigns

in this chapter video we will talk about

elections and campaigns in texas

so elections and campaigns elections i

mean let's just get some basic

definitions out of the way here

elections are the process by which we

select our government officials

the people uh go through the

process of registering to vote and then

they go vote in the elections and it's

there that we choose

basically

all of the people that represent us in

government and make the laws that impact

us

from the most local level city council

county commissioner

to the state level the state legislature

state senate governor and others and

then of course on the national level

members of the u.s congress members of

the u.s senate and the president of the

united states

campaigns those are the efforts by those

candidates those people that are trying

to reach those offices

that are trying to win that uh

election and

to gain that political position or

political seat

and once they get there of course they

are going to try to get their policies

that they want or their laws that they

want to be adopted

now there are quite a few different

types of elections that we need to talk

about

one

is the primary election

this determines the nominees from the

different political parties so it occurs

before what will be called the general

election which we'll get to the pri in

the primary election

uh each political party

pits candidates or may pits sometimes it

just may be one candidate against other

members of the same political party so

you will have let's say

they all are running for the same

opportunity

to run for the office in the general

election so you might have

multiple republicans that want to be

governor

well

the

republican party needs to determine you

know which of those candidates

should run in the general election

because you don't want and you won't

have multiple candidates

from the same party running under the

same party label for the same seat so

you wouldn't have five republicans

running for

governor in the general election or

three democrats running for governor in

the general election you need

the parties need to choose one

and it's in the primary election that

this happened so you have

and it usually occurs

quite a few months before the general

election so in the primary you will have

republicans running against other

republicans democrats running against

other democrats and there may be a

libertarian primary

for the libertarian party green party

whatever but each individual

party

may have a primary election and

the um what usually happens is if the

the person that gets 50 or more

of the vote

or actually more than 50

50 plus one half plus one

wins the primary now if there are

multiple running

they

then generally what happens if no

candidate gets over half or 50 plus one

then there is a runoff election between

the top two vote getters

okay so

that is called the runoff election the

top two vote getters in a primary

that where nobody receives a majority or

fifty percent plus one half plus one

then there will be a runoff to determine

uh who will represent that political

party the republicans the democrats

libertarian green party whoever

in the general election

and it's the general election that

determines which candidates will

actually win the elected office and take

that position

so you could have a republican running

against a democrat for

obviously president

the congressional seat u.s congressional

seat from that state the u.s senate seat

from that state

governor of the state

state representative

any of those county commissioners

so

that general election actually

determines who wins the office

then there's also things called special

elections

uh that is often times to ratify

constitutional amendments because part

of the process of ratifying

a an amendment to the texas constitution

not the u.s constitution

but the texas constitution

takes a an election

by the people

also it may fill elected offices that

are open due to death or resignation of

the person that was sitting in the

office

and also bond elections which is

approval to borrow money and these are

usually local entities

uh in special districts like school

districts hospital districts things like

that that if they're going to borrow a

significant amount of money

they need voters approval because the

voters are the ones that pay the taxes

that will eventually pay off the bonds

now in the primary system going back to

the top up there of types of elections

primary elections there are two types of

elections

a closed primary

where only registered members of that

party may vote

so um

if you uh wanted to vote in the

republican primary in texas if it was a

closed system you would have to be a

registered republican texas does not

have that system you are not required to

be a registered member of the party to

vote in

the party's primary

we have open primaries voters may vote

in any political primary

any part political party primary per

election cycle but they can only vote in

one

so you cannot vote in in the same

election cycle

you know

trying to

uh both the republicans and democrats

trying to reach the same

general election

you can't vote in both you can either

vote in the republican primary in texas

and then you cannot vote in the

democratic primary or you can vote in

the democratic primary and then you are

not allowed to vote in the republican

primary now that's just the primaries

once you vote in the primaries and the

primary elections are done

you can vote for whoever you want to in

the general election so it's

very conceivable or possible if you

choose

to vote in the republican primary but in

the general election vote for the

democratic candidate

or vote in the democratic primary

and then vote for the republican

candidate in the general election

so

you're not tied to who you voted for or

the party

uh

primary you voted in when it comes to

the general election

now exciting to run for office um

if somebody wants to run for office

first of all they have to meet

qualifications and generally there's age

qualifications

residency qualifications

uh you know all the basic things you

have to be a citizen of the uh of the

state you're running in you have to be

if you're running for a congressional

district

uh then you have to live in that

congressional district so you know and

as we mentioned i think we mentioned

earlier in the semester certain uh age

requirements

also you have to think about when you

are deciding to run about potential

competitors

if there is a an incumbent meaning

somebody already in the seat

that you're trying to win that makes it

much more difficult so

if you have a an embedded an incumbent

that has sat in the the seat you're

you're considering running for for years

and years

chances are

you might be wasting your time and money

if running so you have to think about

that you also have to think about uh

if uh if there's other

new candidates like yourself running

that you you know how high profile are

they how popular are they how much money

do they have if all of those things are

uh superior to what you have as far as

name recognition and money well you

might rethink it

also family obligations

running for office and what you

if you get it it's a very very time

consuming

process

also it may you know of course it's

going to expose you the candidate

to

very very close

uh scrutiny uh your past

your uh all the thing

the proverbial skeletons in the closet

will all come out and in some cases

uh

some of your opponents may go after your

family members uh and uh

for purposes of uh

digging up dirt

on them so you must be careful and think

about those things and whether you're

willing to um

accept that and of course finances it

takes money

you can be independently wealthy which

most people aren't and run

if you're not then you have to be able

to and be willing to go out and ask

people for money campaign for donations

ask people to help you when uh win the

seat

also uh background uh they're gonna

check that business dealings personal

life that'll all become an issue i

mentioned that prior so if you have

criminal activity in your background

that

nobody really knows about somebody will

find out if you have some nefarious

business dealings

uh or bankruptcies that you've never

told anybody that's been a secret

it's going to be found out

and if you have personal issues in your

life

that you

want to be kept secret uh

it is likely those will become an issue

as well

most start most people that run for

office any office really start with

local office

um city council

school board you know maybe uh county

commissioner things like that and

oftentimes if they win uh and if they

like

serving and if they don't mind the

campaigning and the politics of it

that is at that point they'll decide

maybe they'll run for higher office

state representative things like that

now campaigning

um when you campaign

uh there's different campaigning for

different elections

in the primary election where you're

trying to win your party's nomination

you're trying to appeal to specifically

and almost only

members of your political party

so if you're running for the

republican

in the republican primary to be

state representative then you need to

focus on

and talk to the members of the of the

republican party

in your district

about what they want to hear

name recognition is vital you have to

get out there put signs out you have to

go shake hands go to any

party

event that occurs so people know your

name

also you campaign as an ideological

member of the party you have to

fall into line usually with

the ideologies and the policies that the

majority of the members of your

political party in your area adhere to

when possible media visibility in local

elections small town elections

that means newspapers

facebook pages other online

types of things as you get into the

larger cities there'll be television

stations

that you will try to

you know

get on get your face on

to uh to let people know who you are

and then get out the vote you

probably will need to have volunteers

helping you go door-to-door

and there's ways to target certain

households that are more likely to vote

and get these databases and you go to

those households and you sell yourself

um so that's the primary election that's

winning the primary election to have a

chance at the general election

in the general election you have a

higher voter turnout obviously you don't

just have uh in the like in the primary

election these people are hardcore that

vote in primary elections your average

person does not vote in a primary

election

they uh they vote in the general

election but not in the primary so

there's gonna be higher voter turnout in

the general election

candidates generally run as centrists

they they don't

run as ideologically pure if you will so

they don't run as conservative in the

general election a republican would run

very conservative in the republican

primary because they are trying to

appeal to only republicans

a democrat may run much more liberal in

a uh

in the democratic primary because

they're only appealing to democrats but

in the general election you want to

appeal to both

you want to keep your party but you also

want to appeal to the other party so you

will become what is called more centrist

and less ideologically pure or

ideologically extreme

on the on the liberal or conservative

side

also you want to appeal to independents

those that don't

adhere to a party those are tricky uh

voters sometimes because you really

oftentimes don't know what they want

uh and strategies things you do when you

run for office media is important

newspapers get your name out there get

interviewed the internet and social

media are are absolutely

required now to be a successful

candidate

uh you need a web page you need a

a prominent social media page on

facebook instagram

twitter whatever it is you need to be

able to

have a place where people can go

and

find out what you're doing and

communicate your views and your values

and then of course the traditional radio

and television

with the advent and the importance of

the internet and social media

newspaper radio and television are not

as important as they used to be

those three radio television newspaper

used to be the only way to reach besides

going knocking on doors

but with the advent and uh

in the uh explosion of you know the

internet and social media capabilities

then uh

that's uh

basically now the baseline requirement

you