hey there and welcome back to homeless history now we've been going through unit 5 of the ap government curriculum and in this video it's time to talk about congressional elections so if you're ready to get them brain cows milked with an incumbency advantage well then let's get to it so in this video here's what we're trying to do explain how the different processes work in u.s congressional elections so if you watched the last video we talked about how presidential elections work and in this video on congressional elections a lot of that information and the process is similar but thankfully in congressional elections we don't have to contend with that nasty stinking hairy beast called the electoral college so these elections are much more straightforward so first the basics congressional elections happen every two years remember from unit two that members of the house of representatives have two-year terms and senators have six-year terms but one-third of them are up for re-election every two years so since the president is elected every four years half the time congressional elections correspond with the presidential election which is to say we vote for our congressional representatives on the same day that we vote for president but the elections that happened two years later are called midterm elections because they happen halfway through the presidential term now recall from a previous video that the type of election influences how many people vote presidential elections not surprisingly get the most voters off their couches and into the voting booth on the other hand congressional elections get fewer voters out to the polls but even so many of the same factors influence who gets elected to congress and who gets elected president the first factor is the incumbency advantage remember that in an election the incumbent is the one who is already in office and is running for re-election the incumbency advantage in congress is even more pronounced than the presidential election since something like 90 percent of incumbents win their elections why is that well that is an excellent question and i reckon i ought to answer it for you first the incumbent has the advantage of name recognition and i know that sounds basic but it's about as big a factor for re-election as anything else like if i asked you who the two candidates were for the most recent presidential election you probably have no trouble telling me their name but if i asked you which candidates were running for the house and senate in your district and state you probably look at me like a goat getting milked for the first time and truthfully you might not even know the names of the representatives who are in office representing you right now so the point is our congressional representatives are already pretty forgettable in the popular imagination so an incumbent already has the advantage because there's a much greater chance that you've at least heard his or her name when you go to vote you're more likely to vote for somebody you've heard of than for someone you have not second the incumbent has the advantage of a track record supposing the representative isn't a grade a turd he or she will have some victories to which they can point in order to demonstrate how well they've served their constituency and that can help them get reelected third the incumbent has the advantage of established funding we all like to think that once we elect our representatives into congress they put their head down and focus only on the work of representing the people i want to make that come to life for every boy in this land yes and all light it up like that too wouldn't that be hilarious if they did that no once they're elected they spend a good deal of their time working on their campaign for the next election and no small part of that is raising funds and the process of raising funds is much easier for an incumbent because they have proven that they can win an election additionally incumbents have a staff who work for them and privileges to send mail to their constituents at no cost reminding them of all the great things they've done and maybe most helpful of all incumbents have the advantage of safe districts and you know that's a kind way of saying that congressional representatives in the house gerrymander their districts in order to assure re-election wait heimler isn't that illegal yep but it happens nonetheless so the point is it is very hard to unseat an incumbent and just like in presidential elections congressional candidates are chosen by primary elections and depending on the state these can be either open or closed primaries now remember an open primary is where a voter can vote for a candidate of any party and a closed primary is where a voter has to be registered with the party in order to vote for their party's candidate most states use primaries to select their candidates but some use caucuses which does the same thing as a primary but instead of selecting a candidate by secret ballot caucuses choose candidates by open discussion and debate okay that's what you need to know about congressional elections click right here to grab my view packet which is going to help you get an a in your class and a five on your exam in may and if this video helped you and you want me to keep making them then by all means subscribe and i shall oblige i'm out