Turn on the nightly news, open your Facebook feed, or walk down the street in the U.S. right now and you can’t help but be reminded that we’re choosing a new president in 2016. Why do presidential campaigns start so early? Who funds them? And how do candidates reach out to voters? These questions and more are answered in the Crash Course video on political campaigns.

Applications for Education
The first half of the video is focused on campaign organization. The second half of the video is focused on funding of campaigns and the laws regarding campaign contributions. These are some discussion questions that I would pose to my students:
1. Which outreach methods are best for each of the following age groups? 18-35, 35-50, 50-65, 65+
2. If you were a campaign manager how would you choose where to spend advertising money?
3. What are the pros and cons of limiting campaign contributions? Would you close the 527 loophole?