Even with President Barack Obama’s triumph on election night in 2008, Tom Perriello needed a recount to squeak out a victory in his House race. He e...

WASHINGTON -- In the winter of 1983, as he considered running for president in the Democratic primary, Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. didn’t see himself as ...

The demands on politicians to raise money are notoriously awful. Candidates can spend upward of 40 hours a week just hitting the phones, a process tha...

WASHINGTON -- On Tuesday night, Maryland was once again offered the chance to back an African American seeking statewide office, and once again said n...

When he launched a long-shot, quixotic campaign for Congress, Clay Aiken held no illusions about how the public would perceive his sexuality. He was a...

Clay Aiken's congressional run in 2014 was never going to be a typical political affair. Not only was he a former "American Idol" and reality televisi...

To understand how oddly personal the Iowa caucuses are -- how political campaigns and ordinary voters mix so deeply that it's impossible to sift them ...

WASHINGTON -- It took years to convince Richard Carmona to run for office. As he tells it in the latest episode of "Candidate Confessional," political...

WASHINGTON -- Former Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has been in the hospital in grave condition. For the past year and a half, Ford has battled an aggressiv...

In this balkanized media landscape, presidential campaigns have placed a premium on creating viral moments. A simple tweet or Instagram post from Dona...

WASHINGTON -- For nearly two months, we have given you a weekly episode of Candidate Confessional in which a recovering politician revisits a famous -...

WASHINGTON -- There is a high-minded theory of politics, perpetuated by the melodramatic scripts of Aaron Sorkin, that campaigns really don't have to ...

In the fall of 2013, Rep. Jack Kingston committed political heresy. Speaking to a local conservative radio station, the then-Republican House member f...

Ben Konop wanted to be mayor of Toledo. Some guy in a Budweiser hat wanted him off his front yard. Together, they produced Internet gold. The setting ...

WASHINGTON -- When he first started his 2006 Senate run in Maryland, Republican Lt. Gov. Michael Steele prepped his staff about the difficulties they ...

WASHINGTON -- When he entered the 2012 race for president, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty shot out of the gate. He was the first substantial Republican c...

One of the most consequential moments of the Republican presidential primary happened to come during the first major debate, when Fox News' Megyn Kell...

WASHINGTON -- When he ran for president in 2012, Mitt Romney had hoped voters would see him as a chief executive who could boost the sluggish American...

WASHINGTON -- In the summer of 2011, then-Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) had improbably started to gain traction in her run for the Republican nomina...

It may not be so readily apparent to the voter, but female candidates have to deal with substantially more bullshit when they run for public office th...

WASHINGTON -- Everyone who followed the rise and fall of former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean’s presidential campaign points to a single moment when it a...

More than a decade before anyone felt the Bern, Vermont Gov. Howard Dean created the modern outsider candidate with Internet savvy, grassroots organiz...