After clicking the Begin Campaign button on the PEC Title Screen (or Waving Flag Screen), you will be taken to the Candidate Status Screen.  Do not simply pass this screen!  The settings made here are incredibly significant to your performance as a candidate, and you only get one shot at making these settings!

Here you decide which political party you will be running for. Once you have decided you must choose your profession from the drop down box.  Your choices are Doctor, Judge, General, Governor, Lawyer, Reverend, andr Senator. After you have selected a profession, give your candidate a name in the text box that currently says "Your Name Here."  This can be your own name or something more creative.

When you choose your profession notice that the initial status on the issues changes.  These changes reflect the expected low value issue and high value issue for that profession.  If you go for a higher value in the expected low value issue, your Unpopularity percentage will increase accordingly.  The same is true vice versa for the expected high value issue.  You can set the issues however you please, but you will have to work off the initial unpopularity that comes with it.

The issues play an important part in the game. You may be given options to debate with your opponent about certain issues and this will effect your popularity status and state support during the game.

There are five issues of concern.  They are Unemployment, Taxes, National Debt, Drug War, and Education.  In the issues box click the arrow buttons to raise or lower your value of support for each issues with 0 points being no support and 10 points being highest support.  You only get a total of 32 points to spread between the five issues, so be strategic about how you set yourself up.

When you are campaigning, you will be able to see the issues that each state is interest in from highest to lowest.  The less issues a state is interest in the higher the points they are seeking for each one and vice versa.  When trying to win states by issue support, you'll want to try to match you issue points template with the states issue priority lists.  These priority lists can be seen on the Travel Screen and the State Research Screen.

Once both players are satisfied with their settings, click the Start Campaign button.