Who ran against Bill Clinton in 1996?
1996 United States presidential election in Ohio
Ohio was won by incumbent United States President Bill Clinton of Arkansas, who was running against Kansas Senator Bob Dole. Clinton ran a second time with former Tennessee Senator Al Gore as Vice President, and Dole ran with former New York Congressman Jack Kemp.
Bill Clinton 1992 presidential campaign
In the wake of President George H.W. Bush's sky-high approval ratings after Operation Desert Storm, American media gave the Democratic party little chance of winning the presidency in 1992. Early Democratic front-runners included Bill Bradley, then a New Jersey Senator, Jesse Jackson, who finished second in 1988, Dick Gephardt, Al Gore, and Jay Rockefeller, a Senator from West Virginia. But each bowed out early; neither Bradley nor Rockefeller considered themselves ready to run, Gephardt seemed to accept Bush's re-election as a sure thing, and Gore had opted to spend more time with his family in the wake of a tragic accident that threatened the life of his young son. The most notable front-runner, Mario Cuomo, decided not to run on December 20, 1991, the final day to apply to run in the New Hampshire primary.
1996 United States presidential election
Clinton's chances of winning were initially considered slim in the middle of his term as his party had lost both the House of Representatives and the Senate in 1994 for the first time in decades. He was able to regain ground as the economy began to recover from the early 1990s recession with a relatively stable world stage. Clinton tied Dole to Newt Gingrich, the unpopular Republican Speaker of the House. Dole promised an across-the-board 15% reduction in federal income taxes and attacked Clinton as a member of the "spoiled" Baby Boomer generation. Dole's age was a persistent issue in the election, and gaffes by Dole exacerbated the issue for his campaign.
Grant Parish, Louisiana
In 1996, Republican Robert J. Dole narrowly won in Grant Parish over U.S. President Bill Clinton, 3,117 votes (42.8 percent) to 2,980 (40.9 percent). Ross Perot, founder of his Reform Party, polled another 1,055 (14.5 percent). In 1992, George Herbert Walker Bush carried Grant Parish in his unsuccessful bid for reelection. He polled 3,214 votes (40.8 percent) to Bill Clinton's 3,122 (39.6 percent) and Perot's 1,174 (14.9 percent).
Bill Weld
On November 30, 1995, Weld announced that he would challenge incumbent Democratic Senator John Kerry in the 1996 election. Weld, who was among the first reasonably well-funded Republican Senate candidates in Massachusetts since Edward Brooke was unseated in 1978, said of the race, "I've spent some time recently considering where I can do the most good for the people of Massachusetts, and right now the fights that matter most to the people of this state are in another arena, Congress."
Conservative Party of New York State
In 2006, the party did not support Jeanine Pirro's candidacy for the 2006 Senate election against Hillary Clinton. Pirro was supported by Governor George Pataki and other GOP leaders who saw her as the only candidate who could compete against Clinton. Under pressure from the Conservative Party and factions within the GOP, Pirro withdrew from the race in November 2005 to run for state attorney general (this time, with the endorsement of the Conservative Party). She was defeated in that race by Andrew Cuomo. Most Conservative Party state and county leaders supported John Spencer, former mayor of Yonkers, New York. While Spencer received the Republican nomination, he was defeated by Clinton in the general election.
Bob Dole
Born in Russell, Kansas, Dole established a legal career in Russell after serving with distinction in the United States Army during World War II. After a stint as Russell County Attorney, he won election to the House of Representatives in 1960. In 1968, Dole was elected to the Senate, where he served as Chairman of the Republican National Committee from 1971 to 1973 and Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee from 1981 to 1985. He led the Senate Republicans from 1985 to his resignation in 1996, and served as Senate Majority Leader from 1985 to 1987 and from 1995 to 1996. In his role as Republican leader, he helped defeat President Bill Clinton's health care plan.
President Gerald Ford chose Dole as his running mate in the 1976 election after Vice President Nelson Rockefeller withdrew from seeking a full term. Ford was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter in the general election. Dole sought the Republican presidential nomination in 1980 but quickly dropped out of the race. He experienced more success in the 1988 Republican primaries but was defeated by Vice President George H. W. Bush. Dole won the Republican nomination in 1996 and selected Jack Kemp as his running mate. The Republican ticket lost in the general election to Bill Clinton, making Dole the first person to be nominated for both president and vice president by one of the current major parties without winning election to either position. He resigned from the Senate during the 1996 campaign and did not seek public office again after the election.
Jim Turner (politician)
In 1996, 2nd district U.S. Representative Charlie Wilson, known for his role in funding the resistance to Afghanistan's communist government, decided not to run for a thirteenth term. Turner won the Democratic nomination to succeed him and was handily elected in November 1996, when Bill Clinton was reelected as U.S. President. He was reelected three times with no substantive opposition. Congressman Turner sat on the House Armed Services Committee, and was the Ranking Member of the House Committee on Homeland Security. Considered a somewhat fiscally Conservative Democrat, Turner co-chaired the Blue Dog Coalition and was a member of the New Democrat Coalition.
Hillary Clinton 2016 presidential campaign
According to nationwide opinion polls in early 2015, Clinton was considered the front-runner for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination. She had gained a broader sweep of early endorsements from the Democratic Party establishment in the 2016 race than she did in 2008, although she did face several primary election challengers, and, in August 2015 Vice President Joe Biden was reported to be seriously considering a possible challenge to Clinton.
Rashida Jones
Jones has campaigned in the last four cycles for Democratic Party presidential candidates. She supported Barack Obama during the 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns. In 2008, along with Kristen Bell, she visited college campuses in Missouri to discuss the candidates and to encourage voter registration for the Democratic Party. In 2012, she campaigned in Iowa along with co-star Adam Scott. Jones previously campaigned for Democratic candidate John Kerry during the 2004 election, speaking at student rallies and a public gallery in Ohio. In the 2016 Democratic primary, she endorsed Hillary Clinton in the 2016 US presidential election.
1996 Democratic National Convention
The 1996 National Convention of the U.S. Democratic Party was held at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois, from August 26 to August 29, 1996. President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore were nominated for reelection. This was the first national convention of either party to be held in Chicago since the disastrous riots of the 1968 Democratic convention, and as of 2016, the most recent presidential convention held in the city by either major party.
1996 United States Senate elections
Incumbent Democrat Tom Harkin sought re-election to a third term, and he was challenged by Congressman Jim Ross Lightfoot from Iowa's 3rd congressional district. Lightfoot had won the Republican primary against two opponents, while Harkin had won his primary uncontested, so both moved on to the general election, where they engaged in a toughly-fought campaign. Ultimately, Harkin was successful in his bid, and defeated Lightfoot, albeit by the thinnest margin of his career.
1996 United States presidential election in North Dakota
North Dakota was won by Kansas Senator Bob Dole, who was running against incumbent United States President Bill Clinton of Arkansas. Clinton ran a second time with former Tennessee Senator and Al Gore as Vice President, and Dole ran with former New York Congressman Jack Kemp.
1996 United States presidential election
The Clinton campaign avoided mentioning Dole's age directly, instead choosing to confront it in more subtle ways such as the campaign slogan "Building Bridges to the Future" in contrast to the Republican candidate's frequent remarks that he was a "bridge to the past", before the social upheavals of the 1960s. Clinton, without actually calling Dole old, questioned the age of his ideas.
1996 United States presidential election in Iowa
Iowa was won by Democratic incumbent President Bill Clinton over Republican Senator Bob Dole of Kansas, with Clinton winning 50.26% of the vote to Dole's 39.92%, a margin of 10.34%. The Reform Party candidate, billionaire businessman Ross Perot, finished in third, with 8.52% of the popular vote.
1996 United States Senate elections
Incumbent Democrat Max Baucus, who was first elected in 1978 and was re-elected in 1984 and 1990, ran for re-election. He was unopposed in the Democratic primary, and moved on to the general election, where he faced a stiff challenge in Denny Rehberg, the Lieutenant Governor of Montana and the Republican nominee. Despite Bob Dole's victory over Bill Clinton and Ross Perot in the state that year in the presidential election, Baucus managed to narrowly win re-election over Rehberg to secure a fourth term in the Senate.
Hillary Clinton
By June 5, 2016, she had earned enough pledged delegates and supportive superdelegates for the media to consider her the presumptive nominee. On June 7, after winning most of the states in the final major round of primaries, Clinton held a victory rally in Brooklyn in which she became the first woman to claim the status of presumptive nominee for a major American political party. By campaign's end, Clinton had won 2,219 pledged delegates to Sanders' 1,832; with an estimated 594 superdelegates compared to Sanders' 47. She received almost 17 million votes during the nominating process, as opposed to Sanders' 13 million.
Clinton was formally nominated at the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia on July 26, 2016, becoming the first woman to be nominated for president by a major U.S. political party. Her choice of vice presidential running mate, Senator Tim Kaine, was nominated by the Convention the following day. Her opponents in the general election included Republican Donald Trump, Libertarian Gary Johnson and Jill Stein of the Green Party. Around the time of the convention, WikiLeaks released emails that suggested the DNC and Clinton campaign tilted the primary in Clinton's favor.
Bill Clinton
After graduating from Yale Law School, Clinton returned to Arkansas and became a law professor at the University of Arkansas. In 1974, he ran for the House of Representatives. Running in a conservative district against incumbent Republican John Paul Hammerschmidt, Clinton's campaign was bolstered by the anti-Republican and anti-incumbent mood resulting from the Watergate scandal. Hammerschmidt, who had received 77 percent of the vote in 1972, defeated Clinton by only a 52 percent to 48 percent margin. In 1976, Clinton ran for Arkansas Attorney General. With only minor opposition in the primary and no opposition at all in the general election, Clinton was elected.
Dorothy Howell Rodham
At the 1996 Democratic National Convention, when Bill Clinton was nominated for re-election, she appeared in a video message, saying "Everybody knows there is only one person in the world who can really tell the truth about a man, and that's his mother-in-law." Following the Lewinsky scandal she was reportedly angry at Bill, but encouraged Hillary to seek her own political career.
1996 United States presidential election
Without meaningful primary opposition, Clinton was able to focus on the general election early, while Dole was forced to move to the right and spend his campaign reserves fighting off challengers. Political adviser Dick Morris urged Clinton to raise huge sums of campaign funds via soft money for an unprecedented early TV blitz of swing states promoting Clinton's agenda and record. As a result, Clinton could run a campaign through the summer defining his opponent as an aged conservative far from the mainstream before Dole was in a position to respond. Compared to the 50-year-old Clinton, then 73-year-old Dole appeared especially old and frail, as illustrated by an embarrassing fall off a stage during a campaign event in Chico, California. Dole further enhanced this contrast on September 18 when he made a reference to a no-hitter thrown the day before by Hideo Nomo of the "Brooklyn Dodgers", a team that had left Brooklyn for Los Angeles 38 years earlier. A few days later Dole would make a joke about the remark by saying, "And I'd like to congratulate the St. Louis Cardinals on winning the N.L. Central. Notice I said the St. Louis Cardinals, not the St. Louis Browns." (The Browns had left St. Louis after the 1954 season to become the Baltimore Orioles.)
1996 United States presidential election in Delaware
Delaware was won by President Bill Clinton (D) over Senator Bob Dole (R-KS), with Clinton winning 51.82% to 36.58% by a margin of 15.24%. Billionaire businessman Ross Perot (Reform Party of the United States of America-TX) finished in third, with 10.60% of the popular vote. , this is the last election in which Sussex County voted for the Democratic candidate.
Presidency of Bill Clinton
Bush defeated a challenge from conservative commentator Pat Buchanan to win his party's nomination. Along with Bush and Clinton, independent candidate Ross Perot emerged as a major factor in the race. Perot, a billionaire businessman from Texas, ran a populist campaign that focused on voters disillusioned with both parties. Perot emphasized his opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement and his desire to balance the federal budget. Polls taken in early June 1992 showed Bush leading the race, followed by Perot and then Clinton. From July to September, Perot temporarily dropped out of the race, causing severe damage to his candidacy. At the 1992 Democratic National Convention, Clinton chose Senator Al Gore of Tennessee as his running mate, and the successful convention helped unify Democrats behind Clinton. While the 1992 Republican National Convention placed a heavy emphasis on social issues, Clinton's campaign focused on the state of the economy, which was still emerging from the early 1990s recession. Bill Clinton ran on school choice, balanced budget amendment, opposing illegal immigration and NAFTA.
Raj Shah
By the 2012 presidential election cycle, Shah was deputy research director at the Republican National Committee and he said in that job that he learned what not to do in the 2016 election. He worked with the campaign staff and manager of the Mitt Romney campaign and others to plan how to defeat Hillary Clinton well before she announced her candidacy. Shah was a co-founder of America Rising, "a right-leaning political action committee that produces opposition research on Democratic candidates". The playbook on the Clinton campaign was
very deep, it's very broad. We had the time and resources to dig through it all and kind of pick and choose how we wanted to go about the general election. I think it played to our benefit. When the email issue broke, we knew what buttons to push. When issues surrounding the foundation came up we knew where to look. We filed over 550 FOI requests and we sued the government half a dozen times to release records. All these sorts of things were years in the making. It was a huge coordinated effort.
1996 United States Senate elections
The United States Senate elections, 1996 coincided with the presidential election, in which Democrat Bill Clinton was re-elected President.
1996 United States presidential election in Colorado
Colorado was narrowly won by Republican Senator Bob Dole of Kansas over incumbent Democratic President Bill Clinton of Arkansas. Dole won with a plurality of 45.80% of the vote to Clinton's 44.43%, a margin of 1.37%. Billionaire businessman Ross Perot of Texas, running as the Reform Party candidate, finished in third, with 6.59% of the popular vote.
Republican Party presidential primaries
Bob Dole, the Kansas Senator and Senate Majority Leader, who was also the vice-presidential nominee 20 years earlier in 1976, was widely viewed as the most prominent Republican in the race. As he had been widely expected to compete for the 1996 presidential nomination ever since the 1992 campaign, he was the early favorite to win. However, his campaign stumbled in the first few contests as it fell behind conservative insurgent Pat Buchanan in New Hampshire and publishing magnate Steve Forbes in Delaware and Arizona. Dole rebounded with easy victories in the Dakotas and South Carolina, eventually winning every single state thereafter, save a narrow Buchanan win in Missouri.
Richard Swett
In 1996, Swett ran as the Democratic Party candidate for a seat in the United States Senate from New Hampshire, against incumbent Republican Bob Smith, but was narrowly defeated. Smith had established himself as the most conservative Senator from the Northeast, and Bill Clinton's coattails nearly caused his defeat. On the night of the election many American media networks incorrectly projected that Swett had won.
Rob Reiner
Reiner was mentioned as a possible candidate to run against California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2006 but decided not to run for personal reasons. He campaigned extensively for Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore in the 2000 Presidential election, and he campaigned in Iowa for Democratic Presidential candidate Howard Dean just before the 2004 Iowa caucuses. He endorsed Hillary Clinton for president for the 2008 election. In 2015, he donated US$10,000 to Correct the Record, a political action committee which supported Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign. Since the 2016 election, he has continued to campaign against Donald Trump, calling him a racist, sexist, anti-gay, and anti-Semitic, and compared him to the Nazi police at Auschwitz.
1996 United States presidential election in South Dakota
South Dakota was won by Kansas Senator Bob Dole, who was running against incumbent United States President Bill Clinton of Arkansas. Clinton ran a second time with former Tennessee Senator Al Gore as Vice President, and Dole ran with former New York Congressman Jack Kemp.
1995–96 United States federal government shutdowns
The shutdown also influenced the 1996 Presidential election. Bob Dole, the Senate Majority Leader, was running for President in 1996. Due to his need to campaign, Dole wanted to solve the budget crisis in January 1996 despite the willingness of other Republicans to continue the shutdown unless their demands were met. In particular, as Gingrich and Dole had been seen as potential rivals for the 1996 Presidential nomination, they had a tense working relationship. The shutdown was cited by Clinton aide George Stephanopoulos as having a role in Clinton's successful 1996 re-election.
Christine O'Donnell
O'Donnell's candidacy was endorsed by Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, former astronaut Buzz Aldrin, former Delaware Governor Pierre DuPont, and conservative writer and policy advocate David Horowitz. Her general election opponent was the incumbent Senator Joe Biden, who was also running for Vice President on the Obama-Biden ticket. O'Donnell questioned Biden's dual campaigns, claiming that serving his constituents was not important to him and criticizing his unwillingness to participate in debates and candidate forums. Opinion polling during the race showed that O'Donnell trailed Biden by a two-to-one margin. In the general election on November 4, 2008, Biden defeated O'Donnell by 65 percent to 35 percent.
Marco Rubio 2016 presidential campaign
Journalist and author Charles Krauthammer has also referred to Rubio as the candidate the Democrats "fear the most", and has described him as "the perfect antithesis" to Hillary Clinton. Krauthammer draws an analogy with John Kennedy's presidential campaign: "When Kennedy ran in 1960, Nixon was about his age, but he basically ran against Eisenhower. He talked about the new and the new frontier... Remember what he said in his inaugural address? ...Kennedy said 'the torch has been passed to a new generation'. I think the generational contrast is huge. I think the baggage contrast is huge."
1996 United States presidential election in Maryland
Maryland was won by incumbent President Bill Clinton (D-Arkansas) with 54.25% of the popular vote over Senator Bob Dole (R-Kansas) with 38.27%. Businessman Ross Perot (Reform-Texas) finished in third, with 6.50% of the popular vote. Clinton ultimately won the national vote, defeating both challengers and becoming re-elected to a second term as U.S. President. , this is the last election in which Dorchester County voted for the Democratic candidate. Conversely, this is also the last time Charles County voted for the Republican candidate.
1992 Democratic Party vice presidential candidate selection
This article lists those who were potential candidates for the Democratic nomination for Vice President of the United States in the 1992 election. Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton won the 1992 Democratic nomination for President of the United States, and chose Tennessee Senator Albert Gore, Jr. as his running mate on July 9, 1992. Clinton considered roughly forty different candidates for vice president, including those who did not hold elective office, but Clinton ultimately chose Gore, a two-term Senator who had previously run for president in 1988. Former Assistant Secretary of State Warren Christopher led Clinton's vice presidential selection team. In making the selection, Clinton emphasized Gore's experience with foreign policy and environmental issues. Clinton's choice of a fellow young southern centrist defied conventional wisdom, but the choice of Gore was well-received, and Gore made an effective surrogate on the campaign trail. The Clinton-Gore ticket ultimately defeated the Republican Bush-Quayle ticket and the independent Perot-Stockdale ticket, and the Clinton-Gore duo became the youngest ticket in history to win a presidential election.
Hillary Clinton
In November 2004, Clinton announced that she would seek a second Senate term. Clinton easily won the Democratic nomination over opposition from antiwar activist Jonathan Tasini. The early frontrunner for the Republican nomination, Westchester County District Attorney Jeanine Pirro, withdrew from the contest after several months of poor campaign performance. Clinton's eventual opponent in the general election was Republican candidate John Spencer, a former Mayor of Yonkers. Clinton won the election on November 7, 2006, with 67 percent of the vote to Spencer's 31 percent, carrying all but four of New York's sixty-two counties. Her campaign spent $36 million for her reelection, more than any other candidate for Senate in the 2006 elections. Some Democrats criticized her for spending too much in a one-sided contest, while some supporters were concerned she did not leave more funds for a potential presidential bid in 2008. In the following months, she transferred $10 million of her Senate funds toward her presidential campaign.
1996 United States presidential election
Reform candidates
Bill Clinton
In 1987, the media speculated that Clinton would enter the Presidential race after incumbent New York Governor Mario Cuomo declined to run and Democratic front-runner Gary Hart withdrew owing to revelations of marital infidelity. Clinton decided to remain as Arkansas governor (following consideration for the potential candidacy of Hillary Rodham Clinton for governor, initially favored—but ultimately vetoed—by the First Lady). For the nomination, Clinton endorsed Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis. He gave the nationally televised opening night address at the 1988 Democratic National Convention, but his speech, which was 33 minutes long and twice the length it was expected to be, was criticized for being too long and poorly delivered. Clinton presented himself as both a moderate and a member of the New Democrat wing of the Democratic Party, and he headed the moderate Democratic Leadership Council in 1990 and 1991.
1996 Republican Party vice presidential candidate selection
This article lists those who were potential candidates for the Republican nomination for Vice President of the United States in the 1996 election. Former Kansas Senator Bob Dole won the 1996 Republican nomination for President of the United States, and chose former New York Representative Jack Kemp as his running mate. Dole chose Kemp as his running mate in order to solidify support among the conservative wing of the Republican Party, despite the mutual personal distaste the two candidates had for each other. The Dole-Kemp ticket would lose the 1996 election to the Clinton-Gore ticket.
1996 United States Senate elections
On November 29, 1995, Governor Bill Weld announced his candidacy for the Senate seat occupied by former U.S. Senator Kerry with a formal announcement on March 27, 1996. Kerry's previous two opponents in 1984 and 1990 had no prior elected office experience. The election was one of many competitive senate elections in 1996.
2016 Democratic Party presidential primaries
In the weeks following the re-election of President Obama in the 2012 election, media speculation regarding potential candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination in the 2016 presidential election began to circulate. The speculation centered on the prospects of Clinton, then-Secretary of State, making a second presidential bid in the 2016 election. Clinton had previously served as a U.S. Senator for New York (2001–09) and was the First Lady of the U.S. (1993–2001). A January 2013 "Washington Post"–ABC News poll indicated that she had high popularity among the American public. This polling information prompted numerous political pundits and observers to anticipate that Clinton would mount a second presidential bid in 2016, entering the race as the early front-runner for the Democratic nomination. From the party's liberal left wing came calls for a more progressive candidate to challenge what was perceived by many within this segment as the party's establishment. Elizabeth Warren quickly became a highly touted figure within this movement as well as the object of a draft movement to run in the primaries, despite her repeated denials of interest in doing so. The MoveOn.org campaign 'Run Warren Run' announced that it would disband on June 8, 2015, opting to focus its efforts toward progressive issues. The draft campaign's New Hampshire staffer, Kurt Ehrenberg, had joined Sanders' team and most of the remaining staffers were expected to follow suit. Given the historical tendency for sitting vice presidents to seek the presidency in election cycles in which the incumbent president is not a candidate, there was also considerable speculation regarding a potential presidential run by incumbent Vice President Joe Biden, who had previously campaigned for the Democratic presidential nomination in the election cycles of 1988 and 2008. This speculation was further fueled by Biden's own expressions of interest in a possible run in 2016. However, on October 21, 2015, speaking from a podium in the Rose Garden with his wife and President Obama by his side, Biden announced his decision not to enter the race, as he was still dealing with the loss of his son, Beau, who died weeks earlier at the age of 47.
Phil English
English was re-elected in a close race in 1996 against Erie attorney and Marine Corps veteran Ron DiNicola as Bill Clinton carried the district. However, he was handily reelected in 1998 on Ridge's coattails, and didn't face a close race again until 2006. That year, he defeated Steve Porter by only 54% to 42% (with 4% going to Constitution Party candidate Tim Hagberg). Porter was an unknown retired college professor who spent virtually no money; he raised only $81,100 to English's $1.4 million.
George McGovern 1972 presidential campaign
Future Senator Gary Hart (who subsequently sought the 1984 Democratic presidential nomination and emerged as the frontrunner for the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination before his campaign was prematurely thwarted by an extramarital liaison) was McGovern's campaign manager. Future President Bill Clinton (with assistance from his future wife and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Rodham) managed the McGovern campaign's operations in Texas.
Presidency of Bill Clinton
Vice President Al Gore dispatched a challenge from Senator Bill Bradley of New Jersey early in the 2000 Democratic primaries. Gore chose Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, a prominent intra-party critic of Clinton and the affair with Lewinsky, as his running mate. Texas Governor George W. Bush, the son of former President Bush, won the Republican nomination after defeating Senator John McCain of Arizona in the 2000 Republican primaries. For his running mate, Bush selected Dick Cheney, who had served as Secretary of Defense under George H. W. Bush. Pat Buchanan ran as the Reform Party nominee, and he called for a reduction in immigration. Ralph Nader ran as the Green Party candidate, winning support from many liberals who were disappointed by the centrist tendencies of Clinton and Gore.
1996 United States presidential election in Washington (state)
Washington State was won by President Bill Clinton (D–AR) over Senator Bob Dole (R–KS), with Clinton winning 49.84 percent to 37.30 percent for a margin of 12.54 percent. Billionaire businessman Ross Perot (Reform–TX) finished in third, with 8.92 percent of the popular vote. , this is the last election in which Spokane County, Kittitas County, Pend Oreille County, Ferry County, and Asotin County voted for a Democratic presidential candidate.
1996 United States presidential election in Nebraska
Nebraska was won by Kansas Senator Bob Dole, who was running against incumbent United States President Bill Clinton of Arkansas. Clinton ran a second time with former Tennessee Senator and Al Gore as Vice President, and Dole ran with former New York Congressman Jack Kemp.
1996 United States presidential election in New York
New York, a reliable blue state that no Republican has won since 1984, was won by incumbent Democratic President Bill Clinton of Arkansas and Vice President Al Gore of Tennessee, over the Republican ticket of Senator Bob Dole of Kansas and Representative Jack Kemp of New York. Clinton carried New York by a landslide 28.86% margin of victory, taking 59.47 percent of the vote to Dole’s 30.61 percent, even though Republican vice presidential candidate Jack Kemp was from New York. Reform Party candidate Ross Perot finished in third, with 7.97 percent of the popular vote.
Early life and career of Bill Clinton
William Jefferson Clinton was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He won two elections with landslide margins in the Electoral College in both 1992 and 1996, but failed to win a majority of the vote both times due to the presence of a third candidate, Ross Perot. Most of his early life was spent in his home state of Arkansas, where he was born and raised for his entire childhood in varying cities from Hope to Hot Springs. He served in multiple political offices in the state including as the state's Attorney General for two years and as Governor of Arkansas for a total of almost twelve nonconsecutive years.
Goldthwaite, Texas
Mills County and Goldthwaite were somewhat more Democratic in political orientation than the state of Texas as a whole, at least until 1996. Mills County voters supported Democratic presidential nominees Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964, Hubert H. Humphrey in 1968, Jimmy Carter in 1976 and 1980, and Bill Clinton in 1992. Voters supported Republican candidates Richard Nixon in 1972, Ronald Reagan in 1984, George H.W. Bush in 1988, Bob Dole in 1996, and George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004. Dole received 1,057 votes to Bill Clinton's 752 and 200 for Independent Ross Perot, the Dallas billionaire industrialist. The second Bush polled large majorities over Democrats Al Gore, and John Kerry.
Hillary Clinton
When New York's long-serving U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan announced his retirement in November 1998, several prominent Democratic figures, including Representative Charles Rangel of New York, urged Clinton to run for Moynihan's open seat in the Senate election of 2000. Once she decided to run, the Clintons purchased a home in Chappaqua, New York, north of New York City, in September 1999. She became the first First Lady of the United States to be a candidate for elected office. Initially, Clinton expected to face Rudy Giuliani—the mayor of New York City—as her Republican opponent in the election. Giuliani withdrew from the race in May 2000 after he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and matters related to his failing marriage became public. Clinton then faced Rick Lazio, a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives who represented New York's 2nd congressional district. Throughout the campaign, opponents accused Clinton of carpetbagging, because she had never resided in New York State or participated in the state's politics before the 2000 Senate race.
Jim Ross Lightfoot
In 1996, conforming to a promise to only serve twelve years in Congress, he left his seat to run for the Senate against Harkin. His entry into the race came in March, very late in the election cycle. At a severe financial disadvantage, Lightfoot lost the race, after strong pre-election campaigning on Harkin's behalf by then President Bill Clinton, who carried Iowa by eight points in the presidential election.
1996 United States presidential election
Libertarian candidates
1996 United States presidential election in South Carolina
South Carolina was won by Senator Bob Dole (R-KS), with Dole winning 49.89 percent to 43.85 percent over President Bill Clinton (D) by a margin of 6.04 prcent. Billionaire businessman Ross Perot (Reform-TX) finished in third, with 5.6 percent of the popular vote.
Colin Powell
Powell's experience in military matters made him a very popular figure with both American political parties. Many Democrats admired his moderate stance on military matters, while many Republicans saw him as a great asset associated with the successes of past Republican administrations. Put forth as a potential Democratic Vice Presidential nominee in the 1992 U.S. presidential election or even potentially replacing Vice President Dan Quayle as the Republican Vice Presidential nominee, Powell eventually declared himself a Republican and began to campaign for Republican candidates in 1995. He was touted as a possible opponent of Bill Clinton in the 1996 U.S. presidential election, possibly capitalizing on a split conservative vote in Iowa and even leading New Hampshire polls for the GOP nomination, but Powell declined, citing a lack of passion for politics. Powell defeated Clinton 50–38 in a hypothetical match-up proposed to voters in the exit polls conducted on Election Day. Despite not standing in the race, Powell won the Republican New Hampshire Vice-Presidential primary on write-in votes.
Schedule for the 2008 Democratic National Convention
Along with presumptive presidential nominee Barack Obama, former opponent Hillary Clinton's name was also placed in nomination for president. The "Los Angeles Times" noted that this has occurred before: Jerry Brown's name was entered into the roll call after losing to Bill Clinton in 1992; Jesse Jackson and Gary Hart also had their names added after losing to Walter F. Mondale in 1984. In 1980, Senator Ted Kennedy's name was entered into the roll call after losing to Jimmy Carter. In addition, Clinton became only the fourth woman to have her name placed in nomination for president at a major party convention. U.S. Sen. Margaret Chase Smith of Maine was placed in nomination at the 1964 Republican convention, and U.S. Rep. Shirley Chisholm of New York was placed in nomination at the 1972 Democratic convention. In 1976, anti-abortionist Ellen McCormack had her name placed in nomination along with Mo Udall, Jimmy Carter and Jerry Brown.
1996 United States presidential election in Oregon
Oregon was won by President Bill Clinton (D) over Senator Bob Dole (R-Kansas), with Clinton winning 47.2 percent to 39.1 percent for a margin of 8.1 percent. Billionaire businessman Ross Perot (Reform-Texas) finished in third, with 8.8 percent of the popular vote.
1996 United States Senate elections
Incumbent Democrat Sam Nunn decided to retire instead of seeking a fifth term. Republicans nominated Guy Millner, a multi-millionaire businessman who was also the unsuccessful candidate who ran against Zell Miller in the 1994 gubernatorial election. Millner emerged as the victor from a crowded 6-person primary in July 1996. However, Max Cleland, the Secretary of State of Georgia ran unopposed in the Democratic primary.
1996 United States Senate elections
Gramm previously ran for President earlier in the year, but lost to fellow U.S. Senator Bob Dole in the Republican presidential primary. Gramm was the heavy favorite. A September poll showed Gramm leading 50% to 40%. A late October poll showed him leading with 53% to 31%.
Joseph E. Brennan
After two terms in the House, Brennan ran for governor again in 1990, losing to Republican John McKernan. He ran again in 1994, losing to Independent Angus King, but placing second, ahead of Republican Susan Collins. He would face Collins in another statewide election in 1996, running for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Bill Cohen, a race which Collins won.
1996 United States presidential election in New Hampshire
Although traditionally a Republican state, 1996 would mark the second presidential election in a row that New Hampshire was won by Democrat Bill Clinton, by then the incumbent president. Clinton took 49.32% of the popular vote over Republican challenger Bob Dole, who took 39.37%, a victory margin of 9.95%. Reform Party candidate Ross Perot finished in third, with 9.69% of the popular vote.
Bill Van Auken
Bill Van Auken (born 1950) is a politician and activist for the Socialist Equality Party and was a presidential candidate in the U.S. presidential election of 2004, announcing his candidacy on January 27, 2004. His running mate was Jim Lawrence. He came in 15th for the popular vote, receiving 1,857 votes. In November 2006, Van Auken ran for the United States Senate seat held by Hillary Clinton. He finished in sixth place, with 6,004 votes.
George H. W. Bush
On July 26, 1996, Bush met with Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole and pledged he would do everything in his power to aid in securing a victory for Dole in the upcoming presidential election. The two met again in October while Dole was preparing for upcoming debates with President Clinton. Bush's experience with debating Clinton prompting Dole to seek out his advice.
1996 United States presidential election
With respect to the issues, Dole promised a 15% across-the-board reduction in income tax rates and made former Congressman and supply side advocate Jack Kemp his running mate. Bill Clinton framed the narrative against Dole early, painting him as a mere clone of unpopular House Speaker Newt Gingrich, warning America that Bob Dole would work in concert with the Republican Congress to slash popular social programs, like Medicare and Social Security, dubbed by Clinton as "Dole-Gingrich". Bob Dole's tax-cut plan found itself under attack from the White House, who said it would "blow a hole in the deficit," which had been cut nearly in half during his opponent's term.
Dale Bumpers
Unlike Bumpers, Bill Clinton lost in the Reagan electoral vote landslide, temporarily sidelined by the Republican Frank D. White. In 1986, Bumpers defeated his Republican opponent, later U.S. Representative for Arkansas' 3rd congressional district and Governor Asa Hutchinson. In 1992, after besting state Auditor Julia Hughes Jones with 64 percent of the vote in the Democratic primary, he defeated future Governor Mike Huckabee in the general election. The next year, Jones switched to the GOP and unsuccessfully ran for Secretary of State in 1994. In 1998, when Bumpers retired, the Democratic choice, former U. S. Representative Blanche Lambert Lincoln of Arkansas's 1st congressional district, comfortably defeated the Republican nominee, Fay Boozman, a state senator who was later the Arkansas Department of Health director under Governor Huckabee. In 2010, Lincoln was soundly defeated for reelection by U.S. Representative John Boozman of the 3rd congressional district, the brother of the man she had defeated in 1998. John Boozman still holds the former Bumpers seat, which will be contested again in 2022.
Electoral history of Bill Clinton
United States presidential election, 1996
1992 United States elections
In the presidential election, Democratic Governor Bill Clinton of Arkansas defeated Republican incumbent President George H. W. Bush and Texas businessman Ross Perot. Clinton easily won the electoral college with 370 electoral votes, but took just 43 percent of the popular vote, the fourth-lowest share of any victorious presidential candidate. Perot's independent candidacy won the largest share of the popular vote of any third party or independent candidate since Theodore Roosevelt's 1912 candidacy. Clinton defeated former California Governor Jerry Brown and former Massachusetts Senator Paul Tsongas to take the Democratic nomination. Bush defeated a primary challenge from commentator, and former Reagan White House Director of Communications Pat Buchanan to earn re-nomination as the Republican candidate.
1992 Democratic Party presidential primaries
Clinton, a Southerner with experience governing a more conservative state, positioned himself as a centrist New Democrat. He prepared for a run in 1992 amidst a crowded field seeking to beat the incumbent President George H. W. Bush. In the aftermath of the Persian Gulf War, Bush seemed unbeatable, but an economic recession—which ultimately proved to be small by historical standards—spurred the Democrats on. Tom Harkin won his native Iowa without much surprise. Clinton, meanwhile, was still a relatively unknown national candidate before the primary season when a woman named Gennifer Flowers appeared in the press to reveal allegations of an affair. Clinton sought damage control by appearing on "60 Minutes" with his wife, Hillary Clinton, for an interview with Steve Kroft. Paul Tsongas of Massachusetts won the primary in neighboring New Hampshire but Clinton's second-place finish – strengthened by Clinton's speech labeling himself "The Comeback Kid" – re-energized his campaign. Clinton swept nearly all of the Southern Super Tuesday primaries, making him the solid front runner. Jerry Brown, however, began to run a surprising insurgent campaign, particularly through use of a 1-800 number to receive grassroots funding. Brown "seemed to be the most left-wing and right-wing man in the field. [He] called for term limits, a flat tax, and the abolition of the Department of Education." Brown scored surprising wins in Connecticut and Colorado and seemed poised to overtake Clinton.
1996 United States presidential election
Republican Candidates
A number of Republican candidates entered the field to challenge the incumbent Democratic President, Bill Clinton.
Mario Cuomo
After Bill Clinton won the Democratic nomination for President in 1992, Cuomo was a candidate for vice president but he refused to be considered and did not make Clinton's final shortlist. He was also spoken of as a candidate for nomination to the United States Supreme Court, but when President Clinton was considering nominees during his first term to replace the retiring Byron White, Cuomo stated he was not interested in the office. George Stephanopoulos wrote in 1999 that Clinton came within 15 minutes of nominating Cuomo before the latter pre-emptively rejected the post.
J. D. Hayworth
In 1994, Hayworth ran in what was then the 6th District and defeated incumbent Democrat Karan English, taking 54 percent of the vote to English's 42 percent. Hayworth criticized English's support for Bill Clinton's budget plan, which Hayworth termed the largest tax increase in history. English had been endorsed in her successful 1992 campaign by former state U.S. Senator and 1964 Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater when she ran against Doug Wead, but not in 1994 when she ran against Hayworth.
1996 United States presidential election in Illinois
Illinois was won by President Bill Clinton (D) over Senator Bob Dole (R-KS), with Clinton winning 54.32% to 36.81% by a margin of 17.51%. Billionaire businessman Ross Perot (Reform Party of the United States of America-TX) finished in third, with 8.03% of the popular vote. , this is the last election in which Jersey County, Randolph County, Williamson County, Marion County, Jefferson County, Clinton County, Christian County, Saline County, Shelby County, Fayette County, Hancock County, Union County, Bond County, Lawrence County, Piatt County, Pike County, Moultrie County, White County, Greene County, Clay County, Marshall County, Hamilton County, Pope County, and Hardin County voted for the Democratic candidate.
1996 United States presidential debates
Only Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole and President Bill Clinton met the CPD selection criteria for any of the presidential debates. As a result, only Jack Kemp and Al Gore met the criteria for the vice presidential debate.
Suffolk County, New York
Suffolk County had long been a Republican bastion in New York State. U.S. Congressman Rick Lazio, who opposed Hillary Clinton in the 2000 Senate race, was from Suffolk County. However, recent elections have turned the county more toward the Democrats. In 2003, Democrat Steve Levy was elected county executive, ending longtime Republican control. In 2001, Democrat Thomas Spota was elected District Attorney, and ran unopposed in 2005. Although Suffolk voters gave George H. W. Bush a victory here in 1992, the county voted for Bill Clinton in 1996 and continued the trend by giving Al Gore an 11-percent victory in the county in 2000. 2004 Democratic candidate John Kerry won by a much smaller margin of one percent, in 2008 Democratic candidate Barack Obama won by a slightly larger 4.4 percent margin, 52%-47%. In 2016, Republican candidate Donald Trump won Suffolk County by a 6.9 percent margin after absentees, marking the largest margin of victory for the Republicans since 1988.
1996 Indiana gubernatorial election
Candidates
1996 United States presidential election in Kansas
Kansas was won by Senator Bob Dole (R-KS) over President Bill Clinton (D), with Dole winning 54.29 percent to 36.08 percent by a margin of 18.21 percent. Billionaire businessman Ross Perot (Reform Party of the United States of America-TX) finished in third, with 8.62 percent of the popular vote, a sharp decline from 1992, when Perot captured 27 percent of the state’s votes and held George H.W. Bush’s victory margin to just over five percentage points. , this is the last election in which Atchison County voted for a Democratic presidential candidate.
Walt Minnick
Minnick, who long considered himself a political Independent, was recruited to run against incumbent Republican Senator Larry Craig in the 1996 Senate election in Idaho by then-Senator Bob Kerrey of Nebraska. Although Minnick originally intended to enter the race as an Independent, he was convinced to run as a Democrat by former Idaho Governor Cecil D. Andrus. Minnick lost the race by 283,532 votes (57.02%) to 198,422 (39.91%).
1996 United States presidential election
Reform Party nominee Ross Perot won approximately 8% of the popular vote. His vote total was less than half of his performance in 1992. The 1996 national exit poll showed that just as in 1992, Perot drew supporters from Clinton and Dole equally. In polls directed at Perot voters as to who would be a second choice, Clinton consistently held substantial leads. Perot's best showing was in states that tended to strongly favor either Clinton (such as Maine) or Dole (particularly Montana, though the margin of victory there was much closer). Perot once again received his lowest amount of support in the South.
Bill Clinton 1992 presidential campaign
When the early straw polls were finished, Bill Clinton was the candidate on the rise. The other primary contenders were Douglas Wilder, Bob Kerrey, Tom Harkin, Paul Tsongas, and Jerry Brown. Clinton's victory in the Florida straw poll over Harkin made him the early front-runner in the post-Cuomo vacuum.
1996 United States presidential election in Kentucky
Kentucky was won by President Bill Clinton (D) over Senator Bob Dole (R-KS), with Clinton winning 45.84% to 44.88% by a margin of 0.96%. Billionaire businessman Ross Perot (Reform Party of the United States of America-TX) finished in third, with 8.67% of the popular vote. , this is the last time that the Democratic nominee carried Kentucky, as well as Powell County, Montgomery County, Nicholas County, Lawrence County, Bourbon County, Nelson County, Simpson County, McCracken County, Hopkins County, Calloway County, Graves County, Greenup County, Clark County, Marshall County, Meade County, Bell County, Logan County, Ohio County, Johnson County, Marion County, Harrison County, Henry County, Union County, Trigg County, Morgan County, Webster County, Caldwell County, Martin County, Carroll County, McLean County, Livingston County, Trimble County, Gallatin County, Lyon County, Carlisle County, and Hickman County.
Clinton family
The Clinton family is a prominent American political family related to Bill Clinton, the 42nd President of the United States (1993–2001), and his wife Hillary Clinton, the 67th United States Secretary of State (2009–13), Senator from New York (2001–09) and the First Lady of the United States (1993–2001). Their immediate family was the First Family of the United States from 1993 to 2001. In 2016, Hillary Clinton became the first female presidential nominee from a major political party in United States history. The Clintons (Bill and Hillary) are the first married couple to each be nominated for president. She was defeated in the election by television personality and businessman Donald Trump.
Pat Buchanan
Buchanan made another attempt to win the Republican nomination in the 1996 primaries. With a Democratic President (Bill Clinton) seeking re-election, there was no incumbent Republican with a lock on the ticket. Indeed, with former President George H. W. Bush having made clear he was not interested in re-gaining the office, the closest the party had to a front-runner was the Senate Majority leader Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas, who was considered to have many weaknesses. Buchanan sought the Republican nomination from Dole's right, voicing his opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Other candidates for the nomination included Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas, former Tennessee Governor Lamar Alexander and the multi-millionaire publisher Steve Forbes.
1996 Democratic Party presidential primaries
With the advantage of incumbency, Bill Clinton's path to renomination by the Democratic Party was uneventful. At the 1996 Democratic National Convention, Clinton - along with incumbent Vice President Al Gore - was renominated following a primary race in which he faced only token opposition. Perennial candidate Lyndon LaRouche qualified for one delegate from Virginia and one delegate from Louisiana, but the state parties refused to award him delegates and the First District Court of Appeals upheld their decision. Former Pennsylvania governor Bob Casey contemplated a challenge to Clinton, but health problems forced Casey to abandon a bid. That left Jimmy Griffin, the former mayor of Buffalo, New York, as the highest-ranking challenger still in the race. After finishing in eighth place, behind even the perennial candidates, in the New Hampshire primaries, Griffin dropped out of the race. Clinton easily won primaries nationwide, with margins consistently higher than 80%.
Donna Shalala
Shalala led the Clinton Foundation during the 2016 presidential election, in which Hillary Clinton was a leading candidate and the propriety of the foundation's activity came under scrutiny. In a September 14, 2016, interview on MSNBC, Shalala admitted that there was “no question” that donors to the Clinton Foundation had been given “courtesy appointments” in the State Department while Hillary Clinton ran that department. Shalala oversaw the termination of the Clinton Global Initiative during her tenure as CEO, as well as other reductions in operations intended to avoid conflicts of interest if Clinton won the election. She resisted calls by the "Washington Post" and "USA Today" to shut down the foundation entirely, arguing that "there are human beings around the world who would be affected by these decisions."
1996 United States presidential election in Mississippi
Mississippi was won by Kansas Senator Bob Dole, who was running against incumbent United States President Bill Clinton of Arkansas. Clinton ran a second time with former Tennessee Senator and Al Gore as Vice President, and Dole ran with former New York Congressman Jack Kemp.
1996 United States presidential election in Nevada
A swing state, Nevada was narrowly won by incumbent Democratic President Bill Clinton. Clinton took a 43.93% plurality of the popular vote over Republican challenger Bob Dole, who took 42.91%, a victory margin of 1.02%. Reform Party candidate Ross Perot finished in third, with 9.47% of the popular vote.
Kenneth Ulman
Ulman worked on campaigns to elect Bill Clinton in 1996, Maryland Governor Parris Glendening in 1998, and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend in 2002.
Ulman first ran for political office in 2002, when he sought the district 4 County Council seat that was being vacated by Mary Lorsung. Ulman won the Democratic primary by 50 votes and beat Republican opponent, Joan Lancos, in the general election. Ulman served a four-year term as a Council member in Howard County.
Lee Atwater
Following Bush's victory, Atwater focused on organizing a public relations campaign against Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton. Atwater viewed Clinton as a serious potential threat to Bush in the 1992 presidential election. At the time of Atwater's illness, he was supporting the bid of Representative Tommy Robinson for the Republican gubernatorial nomination to oppose Clinton in the fall. Robinson lost the primary to former Arkla Gas CEO Sheffield Nelson.
1996 United States presidential election in Wisconsin
Wisconsin was won by President Bill Clinton (D) over Senator Bob Dole (R-KS), with Clinton winning by 48.81 percent to 38.48 percent, or a margin of 10.33 percent. Billionaire businessman Ross Perot (Reform Party of the United States of America-TX) finished in third, with 10.35 percent of the popular vote. , this is the last election in which the following counties have voted for a Democratic presidential candidate: Polk, St. Croix, Sheboygan, and Taylor.
1996 Republican Party presidential primaries
Following the 1994 midterm elections, many prominent candidates entered what would be a crowded field. This was expected as Democratic President Bill Clinton was very unpopular in his first two years in office, eventually leading to the Republican Revolution. However, as Clinton became increasingly popular in his third year in office, several withdrew from the race or decided not to run. Former U.S. Army Gen. Colin L. Powell was widely courted as a potential Republican nominee. However, on November 8, 1995, Powell announced that he would not seek the nomination. Former Secretary of Defense and future Vice President of the United States Dick Cheney was touted by many as a possible candidate for the presidency, but he declared his intentions not to run in early 1995. Then-Texas Governor George W. Bush was also urged by some party leaders to seek the Republican Party nomination, but opted against doing so.
Bill Clinton
Clinton presided over the longest period of peacetime economic expansion in American history and signed into law the North American Free Trade Agreement, but failed to pass his plan for national health care reform. In the 1994 elections, the Republican Party won unified control of the Congress for the first time in 40 years. In 1996, Clinton became the first Democrat since Franklin D. Roosevelt to be elected to a second full term. He passed welfare reform and the State Children's Health Insurance Program, as well as financial deregulation measures, including the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000. In 1998, Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives for perjury and obstruction of justice following allegations that he committed perjury and obstructed justice to conceal an affair he had with Monica Lewinsky, a 22-year old White House intern. Clinton was acquitted by the Senate in 1999 and completed his term in office. He is only the second U.S. president to ever be impeached, the first being Andrew Johnson. During the last three years of Clinton's presidency, the Congressional Budget Office reported a budget surplus, the first such surplus since 1969. In foreign policy, Clinton ordered U.S. military intervention in the Bosnian and Kosovo wars, signed the Iraq Liberation Act in opposition to Saddam Hussein, participated in the 2000 Camp David Summit to advance the Israeli–Palestinian peace process, and assisted the Northern Ireland peace process.
1996 United States presidential election
The 1996 United States presidential election was the 53rd quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 5, 1996. Incumbent Democratic President Bill Clinton defeated former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole, the Republican nominee.
1996 United States presidential election
With the advantage of incumbency, Bill Clinton's path to renomination by the Democratic Party was uneventful. At the 1996 Democratic National Convention, Clinton and incumbent Vice President Al Gore were renominated with token opposition. Incarcerated fringe candidate Lyndon LaRouche won a few Arkansas delegates who were barred from the convention. Jimmy Griffin, former Mayor of Buffalo, New York, mounted a brief campaign but withdrew after a poor showing in the New Hampshire primary. Former Pennsylvania governor Bob Casey contemplated a challenge to Clinton, but health problems forced Casey to abandon a bid.
1996 United States Senate election in Iowa
The 1996 United States Senate election in Iowa was held on November 5, 1996. Incumbent Democratic United States Senator Tom Harkin sought re-election to a third term in the United States Senate, and he was challenged by United States Congressman Jim Ross Lightfoot from Iowa's 3rd congressional district. Lightfoot had won the Republican primary against two opponents, while Harkin had won his primary uncontested, so both moved on to the general election, where they engaged in a toughly-fought campaign. Ultimately, Harkin was successful in his bid, and defeated Lightfoot, albeit by the thinnest margin of his career.
Arlen Specter
On March 31, 1995, Specter announced his candidacy for President of the United States, to challenge the incumbent Bill Clinton. He entered the race as an alternative to the stereotypical religious conservative image. He was critical of Pat Buchanan, Pat Robertson, and Ralph Reed, saying all three were far too conservative.
1996 United States presidential election in Connecticut
Connecticut was won by incumbent Democratic President Bill Clinton, who took 52.83% of the vote over Republican Senator Bob Dole of Kansas, who took 34.69%, a victory margin of 18.14%. The Reform Party candidate, Texas Billionaire Ross Perot, finished in third, with 10.02% of the popular vote.
Steve Michael
Steve Michael (April 7 1956 – May 25, 1998) was a member of ACT UP and in 1996 was the AIDS Cure Party's candidate for President of the United States, with Anne Northrup as his running mate. Their presidential ticket was only on the ballot in Tennessee. He was a critic of the Clinton administration and his stated intention in creating the party and running for office was to "create the illusion of an AIDS voting bloc, and AIDS will become a small part of the media coverage." He had also run in the New Hampshire primaries, receiving a "couple hundred" votes there.
Post-presidency of Bill Clinton
In the course of the 2008 Democratic presidential primary campaign, Clinton vigorously advocated on behalf of his wife, Hillary Clinton, leading some observers and party members to question the appropriateness of his role in view of his status as a former president. Some felt that Clinton was overshadowing his wife in the campaign, with her presidential rival Barack Obama complaining that he sometimes "did not know which Clinton he was running against." At an MSNBC debate, Republican primary candidate Mitt Romney said that he "can't imagine Bill Clinton left with nothing to do in the White House", suggesting that Clinton would be a "co-president and try and help manage the economy and help manage the world affairs".
Top Democratic Party officials, including Congressman Rahm Emanuel, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, asked Clinton to tone down his attacks on Obama following the bitterly contested Nevada caucus, suggesting that Clinton could be damaging his own political capital and global stature. Some commentators even accused the former president of "playing the race card" against Obama, who is half-black, by suggesting he would understand if South Carolina's African Americans naturally would vote for the black candidate, but rejected suggestions that America was not ready for a black President. Many felt that by alienating black voters who had once overwhelmingly supported the Clintons, Clinton had tarnished his legacy as the so-called "first black president." In particular, Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) suggested that Clinton's vocal attacks on Obama could damage the former President's legacy.
Following his wife's disappointing defeat in South Carolina, Clinton again made headlines when he appeared to undermine and racialize Obama's victory by comparing it to Jesse Jackson's failed 1984 bid for the Presidency. Some observers suggested that the controversial comments fueled Sen. Ted Kennedy's decision to endorse Sen. Obama for the Presidency. Clinton attracted further controversy with a series of attacks against Obama that many independents and former Clinton supporters felt to be unfair. While some believed the attacks might eventually pay off, others felt they would damage Hillary Clinton's presidential prospects and alienate Democratic voters in the general election. Bill Clinton defended his role in the campaign in South Carolina, disputing claims he made race a campaign issue. According to some reports, the accusations of racism hurt him personally, as blacks had long been Clinton's most loyal supporters.
During the primary campaign, his wife's aides criticized Clinton's freelancing and deemed his office uncooperative– at one point, they complained, his people would not allow one of her people to ride on his plane to campaign stops. His aides, on the other hand, stewed over what they saw as her people's disregard for the advice of one of this generation's great political minds and bristled at surrendering control of his schedule. On the night of the Pennsylvania primary, Clinton grew playfully competitive with his wife over who had done more events or had had more impact. Governor Ed Rendell showed Clinton the county-by-county returns, while she was superstitious and rarely watched election night coverage. According to Rendell, "The president wanted to know exactly what the returns were in the places he had been and Hillary hadn't been. He kept showing Hillary, and she would laugh."
2000 United States Senate election in New York
Giuliani and Clinton got another chance to battle each other during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, when she was the Democratic nominee and he was one of the few high-profile Republicans to enthusiastically campaign for that party's nominee, Donald Trump. As the "Washington Post" wrote, "Rudy Giuliani is finally running the race against Hillary Clinton that he first contemplated some 17 years ago: a brutish bout under a white-hot spotlight." His actions on behalf of Trump included not only fiery attacks on Clinton's record as Secretary of State but also charges that she was experiencing significant problems with her health. A Clinton spokesperson responded by pointing out that it was Giuliani who had left the 2000 senatorial race in part for health reasons, not Clinton. Giuliani said Clinton was "too stupid to be president" for having stayed married to her husband following the Lewinsky scandal. Clinton sent some mild barbs Giuliani's way during the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner in October 2016, to which Giuliani responded to with stone-faced silence rather than the usual playing-along mirth. The former mayor also issued a false charge against Clinton's statements regarding her role following the September 11 attacks that he had to apologize for. And in the days leading up to the election, Giuliani implied, and then denied, that he had had inside knowledge of the FBI's late-in-the-campaign reopening of its investigation into the Clinton emails matter. Following Clinton's loss, Giuliani was considered to be on Trump's short list for both Attorney General – if picked, he said he would be open to prosecuting Clinton – and Clinton's past job of Secretary of State – where his potential conflicts from his post-mayoral consulting work, advisor roles, and paid speeches for foreign clients and corporations could have exposed him to some of the same charges that he had made against Clinton when she had held that position. In the event, he was not selected for either position.
Third-party and independent candidates for the 1996 United States presidential election
Steve Michael ran as an Independent under the banner of the AIDS Cure Party, with Anne Northrup as his running mate. Michael and Northrup received 408 votes.
Bill Clinton 1992 presidential campaign
Clinton was the governor of a traditionally conservative Southern state, Arkansas. He had been viewed as a viable presidential candidate before his actual bid in 1992. During the 1988 Presidential Primaries, where George H. W. Bush, the incumbent Vice President, seemed all but inevitable as the president, many turned to Clinton as the next Southern leader of the party. Bill Clinton was seen as a potential candidate as he was a popular Democratic governor in a state that had voted for Republicans in four of the last five presidential elections.
Sam Sloan
On September 29, 2015, Sloan filed with the FEC to run for the Democratic Party presidential candidates, 2016. As a candidate for US President, Sloan attempted to run paid television ads on KCCI, the major TV station in Des Moines Iowa, and WMUR TV, the major TV station in Manchester, New Hampshire. Both of these TV stations are owned by Hearst Television. Sloan ran as an anti-war candidate opposing the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Both TV stations refused to run the Sloan paid TV ads on the ground that Sloan had failed to meet his burden to substantiate bona fide candidacy for the Office of the President of the United States under the threshold established by the Communications Act of 1934 and regulations of the Federal Communications Commission. Sloan then sued in the United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire, in Concord, New Hampshire. Sloan also named as a defendant Debbie Wasserman Schultz for allowing only two Democratic Party (United States) Candidates, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders into the Democratic Party TV Debates thus making it virtually impossible for any other Democratic Party candidate to run. Sloan alleged that Communications Act of 1934 and Title 47 of the Code of Federal Regulations 47 USC 315 requires federally licensed broadcasters to provide all candidates running for public office equal opportunity to utilize the broadcast station. Judge Paul J. Barbadoro, U.S. District Judge disagreed and found and the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit affirmed that there is no private right of action under this statute and therefore Sloan's case was dismissed. He was only on the New Hampshire ballot and received 15 votes. He lost to Hillary Clinton on July 26, 2016.
1996 United States presidential election in New Jersey
The 1996 United States presidential election in New Jersey took place on November 5, 1996, and was part of the 1996 United States presidential election. Voters chose 15 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president. The major contenders were incumbent Democratic President Bill Clinton and Republican Senator from Kansas Bob Dole, with Reform Party candidate Ross Perot – listed as an "Independent" in New Jersey – running a distant third.