Road to the White House

About this board game

Road to the White House is a political campaigning game for 3–6 players, with a playing time of about 240 minutes, released in 1992. Players move from one to four pawns around the country, visiting cities and collecting votes in the states they reach.

Each turn, movement adds votes to the appropriate state, with the number tied to the size of the city visited. Players can also sit out a turn to collect money, then spend it to expand their campaign. Organization acts as a multiplier for later votes in a state, while advertising helps purchase votes in states that are difficult to visit.

• Surrogates: Additional pawns that travel and gather votes like the candidate.
• Special flights: Tools that help reach destinations without relying entirely on the luck of the dice.
• Advertising: A way to buy votes in states you are too busy to visit.

Issues provide Road to the White House with its most distinctive feature. Each player selects a politician with a personal profile on various issues. Through choice or chance cards, issues become active, granting bonuses or imposing penalties in certain states when a politician with a relevant position visits them. The system encourages players to role-play their chosen politicians as they campaign.

The decisive contest comes after campaigning ends. State by state, players compare their votes to determine who wins each state’s delegates. In a distinctive balloting system, the lowest-scoring player drops out, and that player’s state votes pass to the next strongest contender in each state. Successive ballots eliminate more players until a final winner is selected.