Races and primaries

Every race in Career Mode is decided in two stages. A primary chooses each party's candidate, and a general election chooses the winner. Anyone eligible may file for any office, and no candidacy is refused. The offices this covers are:

• State lower house and state senate seats
• The US House and US Senate
• State governorships
• The presidency

Strength in a primary

A candidate's strength in a primary is how well known they are among their own party's voters, and how well the voters who know them think of them, both measured among the voters of the seat being contested. There is no separate counter for campaign effort, and holding the seat does not add anything to a candidate's strength by itself.

For the player, these two figures are read from the same record used across the whole career, weighted toward whichever voters the seat belongs to: a district for a state or House seat, a whole state for governor or the Senate, and the whole country for the presidency. Other candidates carry the same two figures in their own way. A member of the state's political class has their party standing as a recognition figure and their own fit with the seat's voters as a favourability figure. An authored or generated candidate is given figures that match how serious a contender they are. A sitting career President seeking their own party's renomination is a special case, and their strength in that contest reflects their party's confidence in their leadership.

Filing and the field

Filing is open to any eligible citizen while the filing window for that race is open, with no other barrier beyond a legal term limit on the governorship. When the player files for a state or federal seat, the whole field of opponents for both parties is drawn at once. It is built from the sitting member if there is one, the real candidates from the matching historical election where the record has them, and enough generated candidates to fill out a realistic field. A field for governor instead builds up gradually over the months the filing window is open, and a presidential field announces its candidates one at a time on the historical calendar for that cycle.

The primary

A poll appears periodically once the player is in a race. It shows where every candidate stands, with a little randomness added so that it is never an exact preview. A state or federal primary, and the primary for governor, are settled in one night, with each candidate's share of the vote following their share of the combined strength in the race. The presidency instead runs its own calendar of state-by-state contests leading to a nominating convention.

In a Historical career, the candidate who really won a primary finishes ahead of every other computer-run candidate in it. This means that a party's real nominee becomes the nominee unless the player beats them. The player's own share of the vote is not affected, so the player wins or loses on their own strength. This does not happen in a Sandbox career, or in any election after the real record ends.

The general election

A general election is counted one group of voters at a time. Each group of voters in the seat counts according to its size there and how it sees the candidates:

• Voters who lean towards the candidate's own party vote for the candidate, although some of them stay at home if they think poorly of the candidate.
• Voters who lean towards the other party vote for the opponent, although some of them cross over if they think well of the candidate.
• Swing voters divide according to how much they like the candidate. They are also drawn towards whichever party the seat usually favours, based on how the seat leaned in that election year.
• Voters who have never heard of the candidate vote according to how they see the President, or, in a presidential election year, how they see the two presidential nominees.

The same count decides races for the state legislature, the US House, the US Senate and the governorship. Because it works through the voters of the seat itself, the same standing can win comfortably in one district and lose in the next.

The presidency

The general election for the presidency is counted state by state in the same way. Every voter in the country knows both nominees. Each state's electoral votes go to the candidate who wins that state, and the candidate with a majority of the electoral votes wins the presidency. A President who is running for a second term receives some extra support in every state if the public's view of them is good, and none if it is poor. This applies whether that President is the player or the player's opponent. The result is shown on the presidency game's election-night screen; see Election nights.

In a presidential election year that the game counts itself, rather than following the real result, the other races on the ballot follow the presidential race. Every House and Senate seat in the country, and the home state's legislature and governorship, are counted according to how the voters in each seat see the two nominees, together with each seat's own lean. When the player is a presidential nominee, how the country sees the player therefore also decides many of these other races.

Midterm elections

In the November between two presidential elections, the House and Senate are counted according to how the voters in each seat see the sitting President, together with each seat's own lean. The President's party also loses some ground in every seat because the election is a midterm. This loss is largest when the President is popular. An unpopular President's party is already losing votes through the way voters see the President, so the midterm itself costs it less on top of that. This applies to the midterms of a career President, and to every midterm that the game world decides for itself, as described in the next section.

Elections the player is not in

Every career is either Historical or Sandbox, chosen under World on the start screen; see Career starts. In a Historical career, the elections the player does not take part in follow what really happened, up to and including the 2024 elections. From January 2025 in a Historical career, and from the very start in a Sandbox career, the game world decides these elections itself, using the same count as the player's own races. This covers the presidency, the House and Senate, and the home state's governorship and legislature.

In these elections, every computer-run candidate has their own standing with each group of voters. It starts from a figure for how well regarded the candidate is. Each group of voters then rates the candidate higher or lower according to how it feels about the candidate's wing of the party. As a result, two candidates from the same party who start from the same figure, but belong to different wings, are seen differently by the same voters. A computer-run President plays out each month in office, and the voters' reactions to that President's decisions change their standing over the course of the term. That standing then decides the midterms, and the President's re-election if they run for a second term.

Winning and losing

Winning a seat installs the player in it in place of whatever they were doing before, and gives the player's recognition a floor appropriate to the office. Losing sends the player back to their previous role, with a small boost to their recognition for having run. A governor's own re-election, a sitting legislator's defence of their seat, and a President's campaign for a second term are all decided in the same way as any other race. For a governor's re-election, see The governor's desk; for a President, see The presidency from a career.