For this assignment you will pretend to be a candidate for one of the 150 seats in the Texas House of Representatives. The assignment consists of 3 parts:

Part I:Paper (85% of your grade) – 3 complete pages (maximum 4)

Part II: Speech (10% of your grade) – 1 complete page

Part III: Yard sign (5% of your grade) -1 full page

Part I: Paper

The first part of the assignment will consist of a paper answering the following questions:

• Go to the Texas Democratic Party’s and the Texas Republican Party’s websites and read about their platforms. Briefly explain their political platform: what issues each political party supports and opposes. Then, decide what political party you want to represent in your campaign and explain why.
• After you decide your political affiliation and the district you want to represent, find information regarding the demographics of the district such as geography, population, ethnic breakdown, age breakdown, average income per capita, main industries, main concerns, etc. and summarize your findings.
• Based on your findings in item #2, plan your strategy. Decide what your core platform will be. Explain in detail the 5 most important issues you will concentrate on during your campaign.
• Evaluate your opponent: Who is the incumbent you will campaign against? What weaknesses does your opponent have that could hurt him/her win re-election? What are his/her strengths? Summarize your findings.
• Identify 3 interest groups in Texas that you would be interested in earning their endorsement to give strength to your campaign. Which ones would they be and why?
• Do research and give an estimate on how much money you need to raise to campaign for this office. Explain 5 specific strategies you will use to achieve this goal. Note: you must be specific on how and where you would do this.

Note: For this assignment you can only run as a member of one of the two major political parties in our country, Republican Party or Democratic Party.

Go to http://www.tlc.state.tx.us/redist/redist.html Click on ‘State House Districts’ to access a file that shows all the 150 House of Representative districts in Texas. Navigate on the map and based on the political affiliation you chose and taking into consideration the information regarding the different economic regions in Texas explained in chapter 1 of your textbook, pick the district that you would like to represent and explain why you decided to pick that particular district.

Note: The incumbent of that district will run for re-election against you so make sure the district you pick has an incumbent from the opposite political party.

Important: Do not confuse the Texas House of Representatives and the U.S. House of Representatives

Note: They must be real and specific interest groups, answers like ‘Hispanics’ or ‘women’, will not be accepted.

Part II: Speech

For the second part of this assignment (in a separate sheet) you will write a campaign speech. This will be the speech you will deliver to the people everywhere you go so make it a good one!

Part III: Yard Sign

For the third part of the assignment (in a separate sheet) you will design a yard sign. Come up with a campaign slogan or catchy phrase and include it in your sign. Make sure your name and what you are running for is clearly placed on it. Be creative!

Paper Requirements

Part #1must be 3 complete pages (maximum 4). Important: the amount of information you provide to answer each question must be well balanced.

Part #2 must be 1complete page and part #3 must be 1 complete page.

Include a Works Cited page at the end.

All pages must be put together in one document. You will only be allowed to upload one document.

All assignments must be done using Microsoft Word. MLA format, double-spaced, 1x1x1x1 margins; Arial font size 12; minimum of 3 reliable sources; do not use Wikipedia; plagiarism will not be tolerated. Your paper must be well organized. Submit your assignment via D2L.Assignments emailed directly to me will not be accepted.