U.S. presidential election, 2000

The U.S. presidential election of 2000 was one of the closest elections in U.S. history, decided by only 527 votes in the swing state of Florida. On election night, the media prematurely declared a winner twice based on exit polls before finally conceding that the Florida race was too close to call. It would turn out to be a month before the election was finally certified after numerous court challenges and recounts. Republican candidate George W. Bush won Florida's 25 electoral votes by a razor-thin margin of the popular vote there, and thereby defeated Democratic candidate Al Gore.

Nominations

Democratic Party nomination

• Democratic candidates
• Bill Bradley, former U.S. senator from New Jersey
• Al Gore, incumbent vice president and former U.S. senator from Tennessee

Under the provisions of the 22nd amendment, incumbent President Bill Clinton was not allowed to run for a third term. Because of the many scandals surrounding his administration, numerous candidates for his party's presidential nomination were discussed. Most of these discussions focused on House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt of Missouri, Senator Bob Kerrey of Nebraska, progressive Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota, and former Senator Bill Bradley of New Jersey. There was even some speculation in the press that Academy Award-winning actor/director/screenwriter Warren Beatty, who had previously served as an advisor to the presidential campaigns of Senators Gary Hart and George McGovern, would run for the nomination.

Related Topics:
22nd amendment - President - Bill Clinton - House Minority Leader - Dick Gephardt - Missouri - Bob Kerrey - Nebraska - Progressive - Paul Wellstone - Minnesota - Academy Award - Warren Beatty - Gary Hart - George McGovern

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

By the time of the Democratic primaries, however, all of them but Bradley had decided against running. This left the field virtually wide open for Al Gore, Clinton's vice president, who immediately became the front-runner, despite Bradley's receiving the endorsements of Kerrey and Wellstone, as well as that of respected New York Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan.

Related Topics:
New York - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Running an insurgency campaign, Bradley positioned himself as the liberal alternative to Gore, who was a founding member of the famously-centrist Democratic Leadership Council. While Michael Jordan campaigned for him in the early primary states, Bradley announced his intention to campaign "in a different way" by conducting a positive campaign of "big ideas." He made the spending of the record-breaking budget surplus on a variety of social welfare programs to help the poor and the middle-class one of his central issues, along with campaign finance reform and gun control.

Related Topics:
Liberal - Centrist - Democratic Leadership Council - Michael Jordan - Budget surplus - Social welfare - Campaign finance reform - Gun control

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Despite his excellent grass-roots organization and his expenditure of over two million dollars in Iowa alone, Bradley was easily defeated by Gore in the primaries, due in large part to the support given to Gore by the Democratic Party establishment and Bradley's poor showing in the Iowa caucus, where Gore successfully painted the aloof Bradley as being indifferent to the plight of the farmer in that highly-rural state. The closest Bradley came to a victory was his 50-46 loss to Gore in the New Hampshire primary.

Related Topics:
Grass-roots - Iowa - Democratic Party - Iowa caucus - Rural - New Hampshire primary

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Republican Party nomination

• Republican candidates
• Lamar Alexander, former governor of Tennessee and Secretary of Education
• Gary Bauer, domestic adviser to former-President Ronald Reagan, Conservative Christian activist, and founder of the Family Research Council
• George W. Bush, governor of Texas and son of former-President George H.W. Bush
• Elizabeth Dole, former Secretary of Transportation under President Reagan and Secretary of Labor under President Bush and wife of 1996 nominee Bob Dole
• Steve Forbes, president, chief executive officer, and editor-in-chief of Forbes magazine and failed candidate for the 1996 nomination
• John Kasich, U.S. Representative from Ohio and House Budget Committee Chairman
• Orrin Hatch, U.S. senator from Utah
• Alan Keyes, talk radio host, former Ambassador to the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations, and failed candidate for the Senate in 1988, 1992 and 2004
• John McCain, U.S. senator from Arizona
• Dan Quayle, former vice president and former U.S. senator from Indiana
• Robert C. Smith, U.S. senator from New Hampshire. Smith dropped out of the Republican primary, denounced the Republican party, and sought nomination as a U.S. Taxpayers Party candidate. He then withdrew his candidacy for the U.S. Taxpayers nomination and ran as an independent.

Following Bob Dole's one-sided loss to Bill Clinton in the 1996 election, the party's presidential nomination was left wide open, which led to a larger than usual number of candidates in the running. One potential candidate, retiring Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, declined to run, while conservative political commentator and two-time candidate for the nomination Pat Buchanan, after an abortive campaign for the Republican nomination, decided to run on the Reform Party ticket.

Related Topics:
1996 election - Speaker of the House - Newt Gingrich - Conservative - Pat Buchanan - Reform Party

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Of those who did announce their candidacy, several withdrew even before the Iowa Caucus, unable to secure funding and endorsements sufficient to remain competitive with Bush. These included Alexander, Dole, Kasich and Quayle. Steve Forbes, who could self-finance, did compete in the early contests, but did not do as well as he had in 1996. That left Bush, McCain, and Keyes as the only candidates still in the race. This was somewhat surprising because Dole had initially appeared to be Bush's most prominent rival.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

With Keyes, loser of both Senate campaigns he had previously engaged in, frequently espousing ideas deemed to be too extreme for the consumption of average voters, it soon became obvious that Bush and McCain were the front-runners for the nomination. Bush, the governor of the second-largest state in the Union, the son of a former president, and the favored candidate of the Christian right, was portrayed in the media as the establishment candidate, while McCain, a maverick senator with the support of many moderate Republicans and Independents, was portrayed as an insurgent.

Related Topics:
Senate - Christian right

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

When McCain received a blow-out victory in the New Hampshire primary and proceeded to rack-up victories in several other New England states and the open primary in Michigan, he seemed well on his way to the nomination. When the South Carolina primary came, however, he was soundly defeated by Bush. Many credited this to the fact that it was the first primary in which only registered Republicans could vote, which negated McCain's strong advantage among Independents. Others, including the vast majority of McCain's supporters, blamed it on a campaign of push polls, smear tactics, and numerous other dirty tricks perpetrated against him by his political enemies. Although no evidence was ever found linking these activities to Bush or any member of his campaign, most members of the press and the general public seemed to believe that they were work of Karl Rove, Bush's campaign manager and a man with a history of such "indiscretions."

Related Topics:
New Hampshire primary - New England - Michigan - South Carolina - Push polls - Smear tactics - Dirty tricks - Karl Rove

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Whatever the real reason for it, McCain's loss in South Carolina stopped his momentum cold. Although McCain won a few additional primaries, Bush took the majority and, with the support of the party's superdelegates, handily won the nomination at the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia.

Related Topics:
Superdelegates - Republican National Convention - Philadelphia

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Other nominations

There were five other candidates on the majority of the 51 ballots (50 states plus the District of Columbia):

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• Harry Browne (Libertarian, 50),
• Pat Buchanan (Reform, 49),
• Ralph Nader (Green, 44),
• Howard Phillips (Constitution, 41), and
• John Hagelin (Natural Law, 38).