Running for Congress - The Rules and Limits
U.S. House of Representatives:
To run for the U.S. House of Representatives, a candidate must be at least 25 years old, be a U.S. citizen for at least seven years, and be a resident of the state they wish to represent at the time of the election. Members of the U.S. House of Representatives are elected to two-year terms. Each state is divided into congressional districts, and each district elects one representative.
U.S. Senate:
To run for the U.S. Senate, a candidate must be at least 30 years old, be a U.S. citizen for at least nine years, and be a resident of the state they wish to represent at the time of the election. Senators are elected to six-year terms. Each state has two senators, and their terms are staggered so that approximately one-third of the Senate is up for election every two years.
Term Limits:
There are no term limits for members of Congress mandated by the U.S. Constitution. This means that members of the House of Representatives and the Senate can theoretically be re-elected indefinitely, as long as they continue to win elections in their respective states or districts.
Some states have imposed term limits on their own congressional delegations through state-level legislation or ballot initiatives. However, these term limits only apply to state-level elections and do not impact members of Congress at the federal level.
