When New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie formally entered the presidential race last week, many news outlets (this one included) said he was the 14th Republican to enter the fray.
Actually, he was the 101st.
As of July 2, there were 100 Republicans officially running for president, but technically Christie wasn’t one of them. That’s because he has not yet filed the all-important Statement of Candidacy form that must be submitted to the Federal Election Commission within 15 days of becoming a candidate. The other 100 Republicans have. Candidates or their committees must file the form once they receive contributions or spend more than $5,000 on their campaigns. Most of these people haven’t reached that threshold but have still filed the form to register as an official candidate.
So far, 448 people from all over the country have filed the form to run for president in next year’s election. That’s up from 417 in 2012 and 369 in 2008.
So who the are these people who want to be president? A brief overview:
- The plurality are independent (118). Republicans are a close second at 100, and 74 Democrats are in the race. The rest belong to a smattering of other parties. There are 33 candidates who declared “none” or “no party affiliation,” 11 Libertarians, and three Green Party candidates.
- Unsurprisingly, the biggest states have the most candidates. California leads the way with 59, followed by Florida (42), Texas (41), New York (32), and Pennsylvania (18). The only state without a candidate? Alaska. (That could change.)
- A few cities are home to more than one candidate. Nine people are running in Washington, D.C., which leads the pack. Eight hopefuls come from Houston and seven from Los Angeles, while Las Vegas, Miami, and Brooklyn (New York’s boroughs are listed individually) each have five. In all, more than 340 cities have someone running to be president in 2016.
Take a look at the map above to see who is running in your state, or search the table at the bottom.
