John McCain 2000 presidential campaign
John McCain for President 2000 | |
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Rick Davis (Manager) Mike Murphy (Strategist) John Weaver (Chief Political Adviser) Greg Stevens (Media Adviser) Mark Salter (Chief Speechwriter) Howard Opinsky (Press Officer) Craig Turk (General Counsel) | |
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John McCain 2000 (archived – Mar. 6, 2000) |
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The 2000 presidential campaign of
McCain was the main challenger to
McCain won some subsequent primaries, but after the March 2000 Super Tuesday contests he was well behind in delegates and withdrew. He reluctantly endorsed Bush two months later and made occasional appearances for him during the general election.
Leading up to the announcement
McCain was mentioned as a possible candidate for the Republican nomination beginning in 1997, but he took few steps to pursue it, instead concentrating on his 1998 senate re-election.[1] The decision of General Colin Powell not to run helped persuade McCain that there might be an opening for him.[2] McCain later wrote that he had a "vague aspiration" of running for president for a long time.[3] He would also be candid about his motivation: "I didn't decide to run for president to start a national crusade for the political reforms I believed in or to run a campaign as if it were some grand act of patriotism. In truth, I wanted to be president because it had become my ambition to become president. I was sixty-two years old when I made the decision, and I thought it was my one shot at the prize."[3]
Potential weaknesses of a McCain candidacy included his senatorial accomplishments skewing towards the maverick side rather than those that would appeal to the party core, a lack of funds and of fund-raising prowess, and an unpredictability of personality and temperament.
Announcements and Kosovo
McCain had initially planned on announcing his candidacy and beginning active campaigning on April 6, 1999.[4] There was to be a four-day roadshow, whose first day would symbolically begin at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, then see early primary states New Hampshire and South Carolina, before concluding in home Phoenix, Arizona[4] with a big audience, marching bands, and thousands of balloons.[5]
However, the
On April 13, McCain simply issued a statement without fanfare that he would be a candidate:
McCain's co-authored, best-selling[13] family memoir, Faith of My Fathers, published in August 1999, helped promote the new start of his campaign.[14] The book garnered largely positive reviews,[15] and McCain went on a 15-city book tour during September.[15] The tour's success and the book's high sales led to the themes of the memoir, which included McCain talking more about his Vietnam prisoner-of-war experience than he had in the past, becoming a major part of McCain's campaign messaging.[16]
McCain finally formally announced his candidacy on September 27, 1999, before a thousand people in Greeley Park in Nashua, New Hampshire,[8][17] saying "It is because I owe America more than she has ever owed me that I am a candidate for president to the United States."[8] He further said he was staging "a fight to take our government back from the power brokers and special interests and return it to the people and the noble cause of freedom it was created to serve."[14] As originally planned, he began his announcement day with a visit to the Naval Academy.[8]
Campaign staff and policy team
McCain's campaign used many veteran Washington political insiders, including some who had an insurgency-oriented or contrarian mindset.
After a while, a rivalry formed between Davis, at campaign headquarters, and Weaver and Murphy, who traveled on the campaign bus.[19] Davis wanted a larger role in campaign strategy, and eventually differences between the two factions escalated to attacks made via the press.[19]
Campaign developments 1999
There was a crowded field of Republican candidates, but the big leader in terms of establishment party support and fundraising was Texas Governor and presidential son George W. Bush.[20][21][22] Indeed, by the time of McCain's formal announcement, top-echelon Republican contenders such as Lamar Alexander, John Kasich, and Dan Quayle were already withdrawing from the race due to Bush's strength.[20] As McCain would later write, "No one thought I had much of a chance, including me."[23] Four of McCain's fifty-five fellow Republican senators endorsed his candidacy.[24]
The day after McCain announced, Bush made a show of visiting Phoenix and displaying that he, not McCain, had the endorsement of Arizona Governor
Bush avoided most of the scheduled Republican Party debates during 1999,
Following
Caucuses and primaries 2000
New Hampshire
By skipping Iowa, McCain was able to focus instead on the
McCain traveled on a campaign bus called the Straight Talk Express, whose name capitalized on his reputation as a political maverick who would speak his mind. In visits to towns he gave a ten-minute talk focused on campaign reform issues, then announced he would stay until he answered every question that everyone had. He pledged that "I will never tell you a lie."[24] He conducted 114 of these town hall meetings,[40] speaking in every town in New Hampshire in an example of "retail politics" that overcame Bush's familiar name. His growing number of supporters became known as "McCainiacs".[41]
McCain was famously accessible to the press, using free media to compensate for his lack of funds.[2][14] As one reporter later recounted, "McCain talked all day long with reporters on his Straight Talk Express bus; he talked so much that sometimes he said things that he shouldn't have, and that's why the media loved him."[42] Some McCain aides saw the senator as naturally preferring the company of reporters to other politicians.[2]
McCain and Bush argued over their proposals for
On February 1, 2000, McCain won the primary with 49 percent of the vote to Bush's 30 percent, and suddenly was the focus of media attention.
South Carolina
The battle between Bush and McCain for South Carolina has entered U.S. political lore as one of the nastiest, dirtiest, and most brutal ever.
The day that a new poll showed McCain five points ahead in the state,
Bush mobilized the state's evangelical voters,[14][24] and leading conservative broadcaster Rush Limbaugh entered the fray supporting Bush and claiming McCain was a favorite of liberal Democrats.[56] Polls swung in Bush's favor; by not accepting federal matching funds for his campaign, Bush was not limited in how much money he could spend on advertisements, while McCain was near his limit.[56] With three days to go, McCain shut down his negative ads against Bush and tried to stress a positive image.[56] But McCain's stressing of campaign finance reform, and how Bush's proposed tax cuts would benefit the wealthy, did not appeal to core Republicans in the state.[24]
McCain lost South Carolina on February 19, with 42 percent of the vote against Bush's 53 percent,[57] allowing Bush to regain the momentum.[57]
On to Super Tuesday
McCain's campaign never completely recovered from his defeat in South Carolina.[14] He did rebound partially by winning in Arizona and Michigan on February 22,[58] mocking Governor Hull's opposition in the former.[14] In Michigan, which he won 50 percent to 43 percent in an upset,[24] he captured many Democratic and independent votes,[58] who combined made up over half of the primary electorate.[24]
Still reeling from his South Carolina experience, McCain made a February 28 speech in
McCain had stated in mid-February that "I hate the gooks", referring to
A week later on March 7, 2000, he lost nine of the thirteen
Withdrawal
Throughout the campaign, McCain had achieved parity with Bush among self-identified Republicans only in the northeastern states; in most of the rest of the country, Bush ran way well ahead of McCain among Republicans, enough to overcome McCain's strength among independents and Democrats.[24]
With little hope of overcoming Bush's delegate lead after Super Tuesday, McCain withdrew from the race on March 9, 2000.[70] In his remarks before a crowd of supporters and onlookers with the red rocks of Sedona, Arizona as a backdrop,[71] McCain said that "When we began this campaign, we knew that ours was a difficult challenge" but that now the challenge had become "considerably more difficult" and that it was time to stop.[70] Nevertheless, he said he would not abandon the idea of political reform that the campaign had embraced, saying "I will never walk away from a fight for what I know is right and just for our country."[71]
General election
Following the end of his campaign, McCain returned to the Senate, where he was welcomed with respect for the effort he had made, his openness in the campaign, and the attacks he had undergone.[72] Other Republicans sought out his endorsement in their general election races.[72] In the Senate, McCain continued his push for campaign finance reform.[73] The question of whether McCain would endorse Bush remained uncertain.[73]
The events of South Carolina stayed with McCain. In an interview during this time, McCain would say of the rumor spreaders, "I believe that there is a special place in hell for people like those,"[74] and in another interview he called the rumor spreaders "the ugly underside of politics."[75] McCain regretted some aspects of his own campaign there as well, in particular changing his stance on flying the Confederate flag at the state capitol from a "very offensive" "symbol of racism and slavery" to "a symbol of heritage".[14][48] He would later write, "I feared that if I answered honestly, I could not win the South Carolina primary. So I chose to compromise my principles."[48] He had done so woodenly, reading his revised statement from a piece of paper.[76] According to one report, the South Carolina experience overall left McCain in a "very dark place."[48]
McCain finally did announce he would campaign for Bush, in a joint appearance with him on May 9, but did not use the actual word "endorse" until reporters pressed him to do so.[24][77][78] The Guardian characterized the endorsement as "tepid" and said that McCain "betrayed little outward enthusiasm" during the appearance,[78] while The New York Times wrote that "there was a tight, grudging quality to the event," and that McCain had been "looking a bit like a teenager forced to attend a classical music concert."[79] McCain also made it clear that he was not interested in a vice-presidential nomination.[24]
When the
McCain's plans to campaign for Bush in fall 2000 were delayed later in August by a recurrence of melanoma.[14] This Stage IIa instance on his temple required extensive surgery that removed the lesion, surrounding lymph nodes, and part of the parotid gland.[82] The final pathology tests showed that the melanoma had not spread, and his prognosis was good, but McCain was left with cosmetic aftereffects including a puffy cheek and a scar down his neck.[82]
McCain did join Bush for a few days of appearances in late October,
Aftermath
South Carolina investigated and revisited
While South Carolina was known for legendary hard-knuckled political consultant
When McCain ran for president again in 2008, South Carolina again proved crucial, in his battle with former Governors Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee and former Senator Fred Thompson. This time, McCain had the support of much of the state Republican establishment[94] (although Rush Limbaugh and other talk radio figures were still lambasting him),[95] and aggressively moved to thwart any smear campaign before it got started.[96] McCain won the primary on January 19, 2008; in his victory remarks to supporters that evening, he said, "It took us awhile, but what's eight years among friends?"[97] The New York Times described McCain's win as "exorcising the ghosts of the attack-filled primary here that derailed his presidential hopes eight years ago."[97]
Primary campaign results
Total popular votes in Republican 2000 primaries:[98]
- George W. Bush – 12,034,676 (62.0%)
- John McCain – 6,061,332 (31.2%)
- Alan Keyes – 985,819 (5.1%)
- Steve Forbes – 171,860 (0.9%)
- Unpledged – 61,246 (0.3%)
- Gary Bauer – 60,709 (0.3%)
- Orrin Hatch – 15,958 (0.1%)
Key states:[98]
- Feb 1 New Hampshire primary: McCain 115,606 (48.5%), Bush 72,330 (30.4%), Forbes 30,166 (12.7%), Keyes 15,179 (6.4%)
- Feb 19 South Carolina primary: Bush 305,998 (53.4%), McCain 239,964 (41.9%), Keyes 25,996 (4.5%)
- Feb 22 Arizona primary: McCain 193,708 (60.0%), Bush 115,115 (35.7%), Keyes 11,500 (3.6%)
- Feb 22 Michigan primary: McCain 650,805 (51.0%), Bush 549,665 (43.1%), Keyes 59,032 (4.6%)
- Feb 29 Virginia primary: Bush 350,588 (52.8%), McCain 291,488 (43.9%), Keyes 20,356 (3.1%)
- Feb 29 Washington primary: Bush 284,053 (57.8%), McCain 191,101 (38.9%), Keyes 11,753 (2.4%)
- Mar 7 California primary: Bush 1,725,162 (60.6%), McCain 988,706 (34.7%), Keyes 112,747 (4.0%)
- Mar 7 New York primary: Bush 1,102,850 (51.0%), McCain 937,655 (43.4%), Keyes 71,196 (3.3%), Forbes 49,817 (2.3%)
- Mar 7 Ohio primary: Bush 810,369 (58.0%), McCain 516,790 (37.0%), Keyes 55,266 (4.0%)
- Mar 7 Georgia primary: Bush 430,480 (66.9%), McCain 179,046 (27.8%), Keyes 29,640 (4.6%)
- Mar 7 Missouri primary: Bush 275,366 (57.9%), McCain 167,831 (35.3%), Keyes 27,282 (5.7%)
- Mar 7 Maryland primary: Bush 211,439 (56.2%), McCain 135,981 (36.2%), Keyes 25,020 (6.7%)
- Mar 7 Maine primary: Bush 49,308 (51.0%), McCain 42,510 (44.0%), Keyes 2,989 (3.1%), Uncommitted 1,038 (1.1%)
- Mar 7 Massachusetts primary: McCain 325,297 (64.7%), Bush 159,826 (31.8%), Keyes 12,656 (2.5%)
- Mar 7 Vermont primary: McCain 49,045 (60.3%), Bush 28,741 (35.3%), Keyes 2,164 (2.7%)
- Mar 7 Rhode Island primary: McCain 21,754 (60.2%), Bush 13,170 (36.4%), Keyes 923 (2.6%)
- Mar 7 Connecticut primary: McCain 87,176 (48.7%), Bush 82,881 (46.3%), Keyes 5,913 (3.3%)
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