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2000 Republican Party presidential primaries

← 1996 January 24 to June 6, 2000 2004 →
2,066 delegates (1,861 pledged and 205 unpledged) to the Republican National Convention 1,034 delegates needed to win
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

From January 24 to June 6, 2000, voters of the Republican Party chose its nominee for president in the 2000 United States 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.

Campaign

The primary contest began with a fairly wide field, as the Republicans lacked an incumbent president or vice president. George W. Bush, Governor of Texas and son of George H. W. Bush, the most recent Republican president, took an early lead, with the support of 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 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. Despite stumbling in early primary debates, he easily won the Iowa caucuses, defeating his nearest opponent, Steve Forbes, by a margin of 41% to 31%.

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. Durham, New Hampshire was the site of an early debate between the Republican candidates.

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. With Vice President Gore easily locking up the Democratic nomination, many moderate and center-left voters felt compelled to make their voice heard in the still-contested Republican contest.^[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, unsubstantiated claims 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 Bridget McCain, 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 the remaining New England states except for Maine, 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^[7] by giving a speech calling out Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, both leaders of the Christian right, for intolerance.^[8] Bush won Virginia easily in spite of this campaign tactic. 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 ECOSOC Ambassador and Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs 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 (who won a few states' primary contests in the 1996 primaries) came a close second to Bush in the Iowa caucuses and even tied with him in the Alaska caucuses, he nor any of these other candidates won a primary.

Candidates

Nominee

Candidate			Most recent office	Home state	Campaign Withdrawal date	Popular vote	Contests won	Running mate
George W. Bush			Governor of Texas (1995–2000)	Texas	(Campaign • Positions) Secured nomination: March 14, 2000	12,034,676 (62.00%)	44	Dick Cheney

Withdrew prior to convention

Candidate			Most recent office	Home state	Campaign Withdrawal date	Popular vote	Contests won
Alan Keyes			Asst. Secretary of State (1985–1987)	Maryland	(Campaign) Withdrew: July 25	985,819 (5.1%)	0

Withdrew during primaries

Candidate			Most recent office	Home state	Campaign Withdrawal date	Popular vote	Contests won
John McCain			U.S. Senator from Arizona (1987–2018)	Arizona	(Campaign) Withdrew: March 9	6,061,332 (31.23%)	7 AZ, CT, MA, MI, NH, RI, VT

Other candidates campaigning for the nomination but receiving less than 1% of the national vote included:

• Businessman Steve Forbes of New York
• Former Undersecretary of Education Gary Bauer
• United States Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah

Withdrew before primary elections

• Former Governor Lamar Alexander of Tennessee
• Commentator and presidential candidate Pat Buchanan of Virginia (to run for the Reform Party nomination)
• Businessman Herman Cain of Nebraska
• Former United States Secretary of Labor Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina
• Representative John Kasich of Ohio (Campaign)
• Former Vice President Dan Quayle of Indiana (Campaign)
• Senator Bob Smith of New Hampshire

Declined to run

• John Ashcroft, Senator from Missouri (ran for reelection)
• Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
• Jack Kemp, former U.S. Representative from New York and nominee for vice-president in 1996
• George Pataki, Governor of New York
• Harold E. Stassen, former Governor of Minnesota
• Donald Trump, businessman (ran for Reform Party nomination); later became the 45th President of the United States
• Fred Thompson, Senator from Tennessee
• Tommy Thompson, Governor of Wisconsin
• Christine Todd Whitman, Governor of New Jersey

National polling