Republican Party presidential primaries, 2000

Republican Party presidential primaries, 2000

January 24 to June 6, 2000

Candidate George W. Bush John McCain Alan Keyes Home state Texas Arizona Maryland Delegate count 1,496 244 22 Contests won 44 7 0 Popular vote 12,034,676 6,061,332 985,819 Percentage 62.0% 31.2% 5.1%

Republican primary results. Red denotes a Bush win. Yellow denotes a McCain win.

Previous Republican nominee Bob Dole Republican nominee George W. Bush

The 2000 Republican presidential primaries were the selection process by which voters of the Republican Party chose its nominee for President of the United States in the 2000 U.S. presidential election. Texas Governor George W. Bush was selected as the nominee through a series of primary elections and caucuses culminating in the 2000 Republican National Convention held from July 31 to August 3, 2000, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Primary race overview

Bush in New Hampshire, after officially filing to run

The primary contest began with a fairly wide field, as the Republicans lacked an incumbent President or Vice President. Texas Governor George W. Bush, son of George H. W. Bush, the most recent Republican president, took an early lead supporting much of the party establishment as well as a strong fund-raising effort. Former cabinet member George Shultz played an important early role in securing to establish Republican support for Bush. In April 1998, he invited Bush to discuss policy issues with experts including Michael Boskin, John Taylor, and Condoleezza Rice. The group, which was "looking for a candidate for 2000 with good political instincts, someone they could work with," was impressed, and Shultz encouraged Bush to enter the race.^[1] Due in part to establishment backing, Bush dominated in early polling and fundraising figures. After stumbling in early primary debates, he easily won the Iowa caucuses.

Considered a dark horse, U.S. Senator John McCain of Arizona won 48% of the vote to Bush's 30% in the first-in-the-nation New Hampshire primary, giving his campaign a boost of energy and donations.

Then, the main primary season came down to a race between Bush and McCain. McCain's campaign, centered on campaign finance reform, drew positive press coverage and a fair amount of public excitement, with polls giving the senator superior crossover support from independents and Democrats.^[2][3][4] Bush's campaign dealt with "compassionate conservatism," including a greater role for the federal government in education, subsidies for private charitable programs, and large reductions in income and capital gains taxes.

The next primary contest in South Carolina was notorious for its negative tone. Although the Bush campaign said it was not behind any attacks on McCain, locals supporting Bush reportedly handed out fliers and made telephone calls to prospective voters suggesting among other things, that McCain was a "Manchurian candidate" and that he had fathered a child out of wedlock with a black New York-based prostitute (an incorrect reference to a child he and his wife had adopted from Bangladesh). Bush also drew fire for a speech made at Bob Jones University, a school that still banned interracial dating among its students.^[5] But the governor was seen to have the upper hand in a debate hosted by Larry King Live, and he won in South Carolina by nine points. McCain won primaries in Michigan, his home state of Arizona, and a handful of New England states, but faced difficulty in appealing to conservative Republican primary voters. This was particularly true in Michigan, where despite winning the primary, McCain lost the GOP vote to Bush by a wide margin.^[6] McCain also competed in the Virginia primary, counting on continued crossover support by giving a speech blasting the religious right. It backfired, and Bush won the state easily. Bush's subsequent Super Tuesday victories in California, New York and the South made it nearly impossible, mathematically, for McCain to catch up, and he suspended his campaign the next day.

Other candidates included social conservative activist Gary Bauer, businessman Steve Forbes, Utah Senator Orrin Hatch, former Ambassador Alan Keyes, former Tennessee Governor Lamar Alexander, former Red Cross director and cabinet member Elizabeth Dole, Ohio Congressman John Kasich, and former Vice President Dan Quayle. Bauer and Hatch campaigned on a traditional Republican platform of opposition to legalized abortion and reductions in taxes. Keyes had a far more conservative platform, calling for the elimination of all federal taxes except tariffs. Keyes also called for returning to ban homosexuals in the military, while most GOP candidates supported the "don't ask, don't tell" policy. Keyes continued participating in the campaign for nearly all the primaries and continued to appear in the debates with frontrunners McCain and Bush. As in 1996, Forbes campaigned on making the federal income tax non-graduated, an idea he called the flat tax, although he increased his focus on social conservatives in 2000. Although Forbes came a close second to Bush in the Iowa caucuses and tied with him in the Alaska caucuses, none of these other candidates won a primary.

Candidates

Polling

Results

See also

• Democratic Party presidential primaries, 2000

References