U.S. Democratic Party presidential nomination, 2004

The 2004 U.S. Democratic Party presidential nomination was won by U.S. Senator John Kerry from Massachusetts, who selected John Edwards from North Carolina as his running mate. The nomination process was a series of primaries and caucuses culminating in the Democratic National Convention. By this process, Kerry and Edwards were chosen to represent the Democrats in the 2004 election for President and Vice President of the United States.

The nomination

On July 6, John Kerry selected John Edwards as his running mate shortly before the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, Massachusetts, held later that month. Senators Kerry and Edwards were formally nominated by the Democratic Party at the convention. The Kerry/Edwards ticket was on the ballot in all 50 states, plus the District of Columbia. In New York, the ticket was also on the ballot as candidates of the Working Families Party.

Related Topics:
July 6 - Boston, Massachusetts - New York - Working Families Party

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New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson served as chairman of the convention while former presidential advisor to Bill Clinton, Lottie Shackelford, served as vice chairman. Defining moments of the 2004 Democratic National Convention included the featured keynote speech of Barack Obama, a Honolulu native and candidate for the United States Senate from Illinois, and the confirmation of the nomination of John Kerry as the candidate for president and of John Edwards as the candidate for vice president. Kerry made his Vietnam War experience a prominent theme. In accepting the nomination, he began his speech with "I'm John Kerry and I'm reporting for duty."

Related Topics:
New Mexico Governor - Bill Richardson - Bill Clinton - Lottie Shackelford - Keynote speech - Barack Obama - Honolulu - United States Senate - Illinois - Nomination - John Kerry - John Edwards - Vice president - Vietnam War

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Kerry and Edwards faced incumbents George W. Bush and Dick Cheney of the Republican Party in the 2004 presidential election. Following his official nomination at the Convention, Kerry received only a small bounce in the polls and remained "neck and neck" with Bush. This was the first time in recent political history that a candidate failed to receive a substantial boost in post-convention poll numbers. Some political pundits attributed this small boost to the unusually small number of undecided voters as compared with previous presidential elections.

Related Topics:
George W. Bush - Dick Cheney - Republican Party - 2004 presidential election

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The general election was won by Bush, who narrowly defeated Kerry. The election was fought primarily on the issue of the conduct of the War on Terror. Bush defended the actions of his administration, while Kerry contended that the war had been fought incompetently, and that the Iraq War was a distraction from the War on Terror, not a part of it.

Related Topics:
War on Terror - Iraq War

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