Could an everyday person run for President?

[Thank you for being a friend...]

What does it take to really become a viable candidate without ever previously being in a position of power?  Could someone on YouTube possibly run and win?

[Former Crackhead Mike Lindell]

It's always possible for a special someone to capture the zeitgeist.

[pbrower2a]

The last supposedly ordinary person to become President was Harry Truman... and he proves to have been extraordinary. He was smart enough to make few mistakes,  and that is often the difference now between being a bare graduate of high school and a PhD.

[Oregon Eagle Politics]

The last supposedly ordinary person to become President was Harry Truman... and he proves to have been extraordinary. He was smart enough to make few mistakes,  and that is often the difference now between being a bare graduate of high school and a PhD.

He was a senator from MO, so he was not an "everyday person"

[TML]

The current system is structured to favor people with high name recognition and/or boatloads of cash. Reforming this system is necessary in order for most everyday people to have a legitimate shot at winning the presidency.

[brucejoel99]

The last supposedly ordinary person to become President was Harry Truman... and he proves to have been extraordinary. He was smart enough to make few mistakes,  and that is often the difference now between being a bare graduate of high school and a PhD.

He was a senator from MO, so he was not an "everyday person"

Depends on just what we're defining as an "everyday person" here, because at heart, he was really just a haberdasher whose sense of community service (rather than something like pure personal ambition) saw him wind up in the Oval.

[BaldEagle1991]

Well you need money and some level of fame to become President, so it's impossible.

[Thank you for being a friend...]

If someone from TV such as Rachel Maddow or even one of the women on The View, or someone else with at least some celebrity status decided to run, how viable would they be?  

I know the actor, Brock Peters, from the 90s movies "The Mighty Ducks" and "First Kid" ran in 2020 but I found this out after the election was already over.

[Suburbia]

Yes, if they have a political platform or message, yes, they can.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

You, if you are a Lawyer, Lawyers have personal relationships with Politicians

The public defenders office has huge connections with Politicians

[Shaula🏳️‍⚧️]

What does it take to really become a viable candidate without ever previously being in a position of power?  Could someone on YouTube possibly run and win?

To do well in a presidential race, you need name recognition and money. Some youtubers do have name recognition and money so they could, but by that point I wouldn't consider them "ordinary".

[Former Crackhead Mike Lindell]

Yes, you need money and recognition. Of course you do. But those things can materialize overnight.

[Galeel]

Andrew Yang? Yeah he wasn't like an everyday person, but he had pretty much no political or public profile whatsoever prior to his run.

[Alben Barkley]

The last supposedly ordinary person to become President was Harry Truman... and he proves to have been extraordinary. He was smart enough to make few mistakes,  and that is often the difference now between being a bare graduate of high school and a PhD.

Funny you should say that, as he was the last president to never graduate from college.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

No, as I said before, if you don't know anyone in politics, you should be an Attorney who can use the Public Defenders office to get pull with Politicians

[Proud Houstonian]

no

[kwabbit]

Tons of everyday randos run for president every cycle, you just don't hear about them because they go nowhere.

[BaldEagle1991]

You, if you are a Lawyer, Lawyers have personal relationships with Politicians

The public defenders office has huge connections with Politicians

Journalists can too. They also have politician relationships.

[Mr. Smith]

Sure, but they can't win.

[Figueira]

What does it take to really become a viable candidate without ever previously being in a position of power?  Could someone on YouTube possibly run and win?

How are we defining "everyday person"? You have to have some sort of platform in order to run a successful campaign.

[Skill and Chance]

It is possible to imagine a random, anonymous retiree with a couple million in their 401K self funding the first month or so of their campaign and then catching fire.  The problem is you need both sufficient free time and enough wealth to drop a good $100K at the beginning.  Hard to imagine anyone doing it while being a traditional full time employee.  Andrew Yang's campaign was the closest thing to this in recent history.  He's worth a million or 2 and did some public speaking for a living, but obviously a world of difference from Forbes List level wealth or Hollywood level publicity.  He only got a couple percent here and there but it's possible to imagine a world where the frontrunner has a giant scandal and someone like him swoops in to get the nomination.

[Former Crackhead Mike Lindell]

While not an 'everyday person', I'd like to point out that, while a mayor, Wayne Messam didn't even have a wikipedia page until he ran for president.

[thumb21]

History suggests that being in business or the military are the best ways for someone who hasn't held any political offices to become president but obviously I don't think you could argue that Eisenhower or Trump were ordinary.

I'd agree with Oashigo that Andrew Yang is probably the closest to an every day person to get a decent amount of support for president, and its worth noting that Yang got a lot of his traction online which shows the strengths and limits of the internet for a political campaign trying to enter the mainstream.

The internet means that a lot of enthusiastic people online could lift a relatively obscure candidate onto the primary debate stage but getting most voters to take a candidate as a serious contender is a lot harder.

I don't think you can ever rule anything out entirely but its very unlikely.

[Flyersfan232]

Andrew Yang? Yeah he wasn't like an everyday person, but he had pretty much no political or public profile whatsoever prior to his run.

Andrew yang is a millionaire

[Galeel]

Andrew Yang? Yeah he wasn't like an everyday person, but he had pretty much no political or public profile whatsoever prior to his run.

Andrew yang is a millionaire

Yeah, but not to the point where he was publicly well known for it or could self fund a campaign.