Republican Party presidential primaries, 2000

Republican Party presidential primaries, 2000

January 24 to June 6, 2000

Nominee 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

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 with the support of much of the party establishment and a strong fund-raising effort. Former cabinet member George Shultz played an important early role in securing establishment 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 him to enter the race.^[1] After stumbling in early primary debates, Bush easily won the Iowa caucuses.

Arizona Senator John McCain, considered a dark horse, won 48% of the vote to Bush's 30% in the New Hampshire primary, the first primary held, giving his campaign a great boost of energy, volunteers, and donations.

The main primary season, then, came down to a race between Bush and McCain. McCain's campaign, centered on campaign finance reform, drew the most press coverage and the greatest popular excitement. Many Republicans complained that Democrats and other non-Republicans enrolled in the party for the express purpose of voting for McCain, thus skewing the results. Bush's campaign focused on "compassionate conservatism," including a greater role for the federal government in funding education and large reductions in the income and capital gains tax rates.

In the South Carolina primary, McCain's momentum was halted by a strongly negative Bush campaign. Although the Bush campaign said it was not behind any attacks (more on this below), locals who supported 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). McCain won primaries in Michigan, his home state of Arizona, and a handful of Northeastern states, but faced difficulty in appealing to conservative Republican primary voters in spite of demonstrated support from Democrats and independents. Bush's victories in states like California and New York as well as conservative Southern states gained him the nomination long before the Republican Convention.

Allegations were made that Karl Rove was responsible for a South Carolina push poll that used racist innuendo intended to undermine support for McCain: "Would you be more likely or less likely to vote for John McCain for president if you knew he had fathered an illegitimate black child?"^[2] McCain campaign manager Richard Davis said he "had no idea who had made those calls, who paid for them, or how many were made," but in the 2004 film Bush's Brain, John Weaver, political director for McCain's 2000 campaign bid, stated, "I believe I know where that decision was made; it was at the top of the Bush campaign." Rove has continually denied any such involvement. The existence of such a poll is disputed since no recording of the poll has ever been documented (about 20% of robocalls are usually recorded by answering machines).

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 a return to a ban on homosexuals in the military, while most GOP candidates supported the "don't ask, don't tell" policy. Keyes continued to participate 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

Nominee

• 
  Governor
  George W. Bush
  of Texas

Withdrew at convention

• 
  Fmr. Asst. Secretary of State
  Alan Keyes
  of Maryland
  (July 25, 2000)

Withdrew during primary elections

• 
  Senator
  John McCain
  of Arizona
  (March 9, 2000)
• 
  Businessman
  Steve Forbes
  of New York
  (February 10, 2000)
• 
  Fmr. Undersecretary of Education
  Gary Bauer
  of Kentucky
  (February 4, 2000)
• 
  Senator
  Orrin Hatch
  of Utah
  (January 26, 2000)

Withdrew before primary elections

• 
  Fmr. Governor
  Lamar Alexander
  of Tennessee
• 
  Commentator
  Pat Buchanan
  of Virginia
  (broke from the Republican Party and entered the 2000 presidential race as the Reform Party candidate.)
• 
  Fmr. Secretary of Labor
  Elizabeth Dole
  of North Carolina
• 
  Representative
  John Kasich
  of Ohio
• 
  Fmr. Vice President
  Dan Quayle
  of Indiana
• 
  Senator
  Bob Smith
  of New Hampshire
• 
  Fmr. Godfather's Pizza CEO
  Herman Cain
  of Nebraska

Mentioned candidates who did not run

• Former Sen. John Danforth from Missouri^[3]
• Gov. John Engler of Michigan^[3]
• Sen. Bill Frist from Tennessee^[4]
• Senator Chuck Hagel from Nebraska^[3]
• Governor Frank Keating of Oklahoma^[3]
• Senator Jon Kyl from Arizona^[4]
• Senator Connie Mack III from Florida
• Governor George Pataki of New York
• General Colin Powell from New York^[3]
• Governor Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania^[3]
• Senator Fred Thompson from Tennessee^[3]

Polling

Results

Statewide

     Win for George W. Bush

     Win for John S. McCain

Nationwide

Popular vote result:^[6]

• George W. Bush - 12,034,676 (62.00%)
• John McCain - 6,061,332 (31.23%)
• Alan Keyes - 985,819 (5.08%)
• Steve Forbes - 171,860 (0.89%)
• Unpledged delegates - 61,246 (0.32%)
• Gary Bauer - 60,709 (0.31%)
• Orrin Hatch - 15,958 (0.08%)

Notable endorsements

Note: Some of the endorsers switched positions.

George W. Bush

• Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott from Mississippi^[7]
• Former HUD Secretary and 1996 Vice Presidential nominee Jack Kemp from New York^[8]
• Senator Bob Smith from New Hampshire^[9]
• Former Governor and White House Chief of Staff John H. Sununu of New Hampshire^[9]
• Governor Jane Dee Hull of Arizona^[10][11]
• Governor John Engler of Michigan
• Senator John Warner from Virginia^[12]
• Governor Jim Gilmore of Virginia^[12]
• Senator John Ashcroft from Missouri^[13]
• Governor Paul Cellucci of Massachusetts^[14]
• Governor Tommy Thompson of Wisconsin^[15]
• Representative John Thune from South Dakota^[16]

John McCain

• Senator Jon Kyl from Arizona^[11]
• Senator Fred Thompson of Tennessee^[17]
• Senator Mike DeWine from Ohio^[18]
• Senator Chuck Hagel from Nebraska^[19]
• Representative Lindsey Graham from South Carolina^[20]
• Representative Mark Sanford from South Carolina^[20]
• Representative Peter T. King from New York^[21]
• Staten Island Borough President Guy Molinari^[22]

Steve Forbes

• Governor Gary Johnson of New Mexico^[23]
• Representative Bob Barr from Georgia^[24]
• Representative Roscoe Bartlett from Maryland^[25]
• Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell^[26]
• Sarah Palin, mayor of Wasilla, Alaska^[27]

Alan Keyes

• Representative Tom Coburn from Oklahoma^[28]

Orrin Hatch

• Senator Robert Foster Bennett from Utah^[8]

Lamar Alexander

• Governor Mike Huckabee of Arkansas^[8]
• Former Governor Terry Branstad of Iowa^[8]

Dan Quayle

• Former Governor Carroll A. Campbell of South Carolina^[8]

John Kasich

• Mike DeWine (initially)^[8]
• Senator George Voinovich from Ohio^[8]
• Representative John Boehner from Ohio^[8]

See also

• Democratic Party presidential primaries, 2000

References