Summarize this article in one sentence.
In most (27) states you’ll have to pay something to even become a legitimate candidate. And filing fees are only the beginning of an array of expenses. The average House race cost more than $1.6 million in 2012. Stretched over the course of a typical election season, that’s about $2,000 per day. If you’re really serious about making a run for Congress, you need to think about fundraising before virtually anything else. Time to hit the phones. When you’re starting to raise money, hit up your friends and family first. It might make you uncomfortable, but it’s where every fundraising operation begins.  And most of the time, they’re happy for you and happy to give. Just tell them why you’re running and the kind of effort required and ask them to chip in. You’ll be amazed at what you come up with. Say something like, "Hey, I'm running for Congress for these reasons... I'm going to need to start fundraising right away, and I wanted to know if you could contribute $100 to get me started." In many states (27), you’ll need to obtain a certain number of signatures  endorsing your run in order to file as a candidate. Check and see how many you’ll need at https://ballotpedia.org/Filing_requirements_for_congressional_candidates. You can pay canvassers to get signatures for you or you can rely on yourself and a few volunteers (who will probably be your family) to get them. Clearly, paying canvassers is more expensive, but is much quicker. No matter what you do, aim for 150% more signatures than the law requires—it will help make up for invalid signatures. Once you’ve obtained the necessary signatures (if you live in a state requiring them), go ahead and register as a candidate with your state’s board of elections. Pay whatever filing fee you need to pay in order to formally register. These state filing fees vary widely in cost, but in some states can be considerable. In Florida, for example, you’ll have to pay a $10,440 to file as a candidate for House or Senate from a major party (although Florida is an outlier in terms of cost). Once you’ve received or spent at least $5,000 on your campaign, you’re required to register as a candidate with the Federal Election Commission, or FEC. Registration is a two-step process. First you file a Statement of Candidacy, then you file a Statement of Organization. The former authorizes you to form a principal campaign committee (which will technically be what is raising and spending donations, not you), while the latter informs the FEC about the committee’s relevant details.  You’ll need to file the Statement of Candidacy within fifteen days of hitting the $5,000 threshold. The Statement of Candidacy is a simple form to fill out, but you will need to know exactly which district you’re running in and the office you’re running for. If you’ve never run before, leave the space for Federal Election Number blank. Once you’ve filed the Statement of Candidacy, you should open up a bank account on behalf of the committee. File the Statement of Organization within ten days of filing the Statement of Candidacy. The Statement of Organization is a little more complex, because you’ll have to list your committee’s bank account number and designate a committee treasurer and assistant treasurer. These are the only crucial positions in a campaign committee, because the committee cannot receive or spend funds without the authorizations of the treasurer. Once you’ve made your major filings, you’ll probably need to double up on your fundraising efforts, because it’s very difficult for most candidates to meet their fundraising targets in the beginning of the campaign. After all, you’re going to need to hire staff as soon as possible, and staff like to get paid. If you’ve already tapped your circle of close friends and family, move on to acquaintances,  friends of your friends, and donors you’ve met through the party. It’s important to concentrate on gathering enough cash to fund a staff for the next few weeks. While the candidate is the single most important part of a campaign, the staff as a collective entity might be just as important. Good staffs have propped up bad candidates and bad staffs have sunk good candidates. Campaign staff fall into the following categories: fundraising, communications, data, political, field, and operations. They are overseen by a campaign manager.  Communications crafts messages, writes speeches, and deals with the media. Data keeps track of voter information, like contact history, neighborhood partisanship and income levels. Political rounds up endorsements from important people and institutions like union leaders, newspapers, and other candidates and deals with party figures like local chairpersons to get surrogates, volunteer help, or donor leads. Field is in charge of directly engaging with voters over the phones, at the doors, and in public spaces. Operations keeps the lights on, the paper in the office, the pens in the desks, and often balances the books and issues payroll. There’s debate about which roles are the most important, but most people are going to want to hire a campaign manager or a fundraiser first. If the candidate is new to electoral politics altogether, a campaign manager should probably be the first hire and the fundraiser second. If the candidate is not new to electoral politics, they might want to hire the fundraiser before all else. Voter management software is a key tool in today’s political world. It allows you to isolate households by income, likely race, party affiliation, voting frequency, and much more. It also keeps track of phone numbers, addresses, and the history of contacts from the campaign to the voter.  Democrats and Republicans both have separate types of software used by the party, NGP VAN for Democrats and Votes Data Center for Republicans.  Party nominees and primary candidates for open seats get access to the databases at a steep discount. There are other types of software other than those used exclusively by the parties, and some are quite good—even better than VAN and rVotes (and more expensive). Of these, Aristotle is thought of as the gold standard.
Raise money. Get the requisite signatures. Pay the state filing fee. Register with the FEC. Raise more money. Recruit a staff. Buy voter management software.