The United States presidential election of 2000 was a contest between Republican candidate George W. Bush, then-governor of Texas and son of former president George H. W. Bush (1989-1993), and Democratic candidate Al Gore, then-Vice President. Bill Clinton, the incumbent President, was vacating the position after serving the maximum two terms allowed by the Twenty-second Amendment. Bush narrowly won the November 7 election, with 271 electoral votes to Gore's 266 (with one elector abstaining in the official tally). The election was noteworthy for a controversy over the awarding of Florida's 25 electoral votes, the subsequent recount process in that state, and the unusual event of the winning candidate having received fewer popular votes than the runner-up. It was the closest election since 1876, and the second (after 1888) since that election in which the electoral vote did not reflect the popular vote. Attorney and political activist Ralph Nader ran as the candidate of the Association of State Green Parties and his running mate was Native American activist Winona LaDuke of Minnesota.
Nominations
Democratic Party nomination
Main article: Democratic Party (United States) presidential primaries, 2000Democratic candidates
- Al Gore, Vice President of the United States from Tennessee
- Bill Bradley, former U.S. senator from New Jersey
Candidates gallery
As the incumbent Vice President, Al Gore of Tennessee was a consistent front-runner for the Democratic nomination, with his only serious challenge coming from former Senator Bill Bradley of New Jersey. Other prominent Democrats mentioned as possible contenders included Nebraska Senator Bob Kerrey, Missouri Congressman Dick Gephardt, Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone, and famous actor and director Warren Beatty, who declined to run. Of these, only Wellstone formed an exploratory committee.
In addition to Gore's advantage as the incumbent Vice President, Bradley was not the candidate of a major faction or coalition of blocs. Running an insurgency campaign, Bradley positioned himself as the alternative to Gore, who was a founding member of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council. While former basketball star 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". The focus of his campaign was a plan to spend the record-breaking budget surplus on a variety of social welfare programs to help the poor and the middle-class, along with campaign finance reform and gun control.
Gore easily defeated Bradley in the primaries, largely because of support from the Democratic Party establishment and Bradley's poor showing in the Iowa caucus, where Gore successfully painted Bradley as aloof and indifferent to the plight of farmers. The closest Bradley came to a victory was his 50–46 loss to Gore in the New Hampshire primary. On March 14, Al Gore won the Democratic nomination.
None of Bradley's delegates were allowed to vote for him, so Gore won the nomination unanimously at the Democratic National Convention. Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman was nominated for Vice President by voice vote. Lieberman became the first Jewish American ever to be chosen for this position by a major party. Gore chose Lieberman over five finalists.
Delegate Totals Democratic National Convention Tally
- Vice President Albert Gore Jr. 4328
- Abstentions 9
Republican Party nomination
Main article: Republican Party (United States) presidential primaries, 2000Candidates gallery
Several Republican candidates appeared on the national scene to challenge Gore's candidacy.
George W. Bush became the early front-runner, acquiring unprecedented funding and a broad base of leadership support based on his governorship of Texas and the name recognition and connections of the Bush family. Several aspirants withdrew before the Iowa Caucus because they were unable to secure funding and endorsements sufficient to remain competitive with Bush. These included Elizabeth Dole, Dan Quayle, Lamar Alexander, and Robert C. Smith. Pat Buchanan dropped out to run for the Reform Party nomination. That left Bush, John McCain, Alan Keyes, Steve Forbes, Gary Bauer, and Orrin Hatch as the only candidates still in the race.
On January 24, Bush won the Iowa caucus with 41% of the vote. Forbes came in second with 30% of the vote. Keyes received 14%, Bauer 9%, McCain 5%, and Hatch 1%. Hatch dropped out. On the national stage, Bush was portrayed in the media as the establishment candidate. McCain, with the support of many moderate Republicans and Independents, portrayed himself as a crusading insurgent who focused on campaign reform.
On February 1, McCain won a 49%–30% victory over Bush in the New Hampshire primary. Gary Bauer dropped out. After coming in third in Delaware Forbes dropped out, leaving three candidates. In the South Carolina primary, Bush soundly defeated McCain. Some credit Bush's win to the fact that it was the first major closed primary in 2000, which negated McCain's strong advantage among independents. Some McCain supporters blamed it on the Bush campaign, accusing them of mudslinging and dirty tricks, such as push polling that implied that McCain's adopted Bangladeshi-born daughter was an African-American child he fathered out of wedlock. While McCain's loss in South Carolina damaged his campaign, he won both Michigan and his home state of Arizona on February 22.
On February 24, McCain criticized Bush for accepting the endorsement of Bob Jones University despite its policy banning interracial dating. On February 28 McCain also referred to Rev. Jerry Falwell and televangelist Pat Robertson as "agents of intolerance", a term he would later distance himself from during his 2008 bid for the party's nomination. He lost the state of Virginia to Bush on February 29. On Super Tuesday, March 7, Bush won New York, Ohio, Georgia, Missouri, California, Maryland, and Maine. McCain won Rhode Island, Vermont, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, but dropped out of the race. On March 10, Alan Keyes got 21% of the vote in Utah. Bush took the majority of the remaining contests and won the Republican nomination on March 14, winning his home state of Texas and his brother Jeb's home state of Florida among others. At the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia George W. Bush accepted the Nomination of the Republican party.
Delegate Totals
- Governor George W. Bush 1526
- Senator John McCain 275
- Ambassador Dr. Alan Keyes 23
- Businessman Steve Forbes 10
- Gary Bauer 2
- None of the Names Shown 2
- Uncommitted 1
- Senator Orrin Hatch 0
Governor Bush told former Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney to head up a commission to help select a running mate for him, but ultimately, Bush decided that Cheney should be the Vice Presidential nominee. While the U.S. Constitution does not specifically disallow a president and a vice-president from the same state, it does prohibit each elector from casting both of his or her votes for persons from his or her own state. Accordingly, Cheney—who had been a resident of Texas for nearly 10 years—changed his voting registration back to Wyoming. Had Cheney not done this, either he or Governor Bush would have forfeited their electoral votes from the Texas electors, a situation which—given the eventual razor-thin margin of victory for the Republicans that year—could have resulted in a Democratic Vice-President serving under a Republican President.
Other mentioned candidates:
- Former Sen. John Danforth of Missouri
- Former cabinet veteran Elizabeth Dole
- Gov. John Engler of Michigan
- Gov. Frank Keating of Oklahoma
- Gov. Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania
- Former Gov. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee
- Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee
- Gen. Colin Powell of New York
- Sen. John McCain of Arizona
- Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska
Notable endorsements
Note: Some of the endorsers switched positions.
- Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi
- Former HUD Secretary and 1996 V.P. nominee Jack Kemp of New York
- Senator Robert C. Smith of New Hampshire
- Former Governor and White House Chief of Staff John H. Sununu of New Hampshire
- Governor Jane Dee Hull of Arizona
- Governor John Engler of Michigan
- Senator John Warner of Virginia
- Governor Jim Gilmore of Virginia
- Senator John Ashcroft of Missouri
- Governor Paul Cellucci of Massachusetts
- Governor Tommy Thompson of Wisconsin
- Representative John Thune of South Dakota
- Ross Perot of Texas.
- Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona
- Senator Fred Thompson of Tennessee
- Senator Mike DeWine of Ohio
- Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska
- Representative Lindsey Graham of South Carolina
- Representative Mark Sanford of South Carolina
- Representative Peter T. King of New York
- Staten Island Borough President Guy Molinari
- Representative Roscoe Bartlett of Maryland
- Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell
- Representative Tom Coburn of Oklahoma
- Senator Robert Foster Bennett of Utah
- Governor Mike Huckabee of Arkansas
- Former Governor Terry Branstad of Iowa
- Former Governor Carroll A. Campbell of South Carolina
- Mike DeWine (initially)
- Senator George Voinovich o
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