The 2000 presidential campaign of George W. Bush, the then-governor of Texas, was formally launched on June 14, 1999, as Governor Bush, the eldest son of former president George H. W. Bush, announced his intention to seek the Republican Party nomination for the presidency of the United States in the 2000 presidential election.

Bush began the campaign as the front runner among Republicans due to his name recognition, high funds, and control of the governorship of Texas and polls starting in 1997 showed Bush leading every opponent by double digits. The main challenger to Bush was Senator John McCain, who appealed to moderate Republicans, independents, and the press due to his reformist policies. After McCain's upset victory in New Hampshire, Bush won the South Carolina primary.

Bush won the majority of the primaries and after the March 2000 Super Tuesday contests he was well ahead in delegates of both McCain and Alan Keyes. On August 3, 2000, Bush won the Republican nomination at the Republican Convention with the support of 2,058 delegates. Dick Cheney, the former U.S. Secretary of Defense, was nominated as vice president despite Cheney initially recommending former Missouri Senator John Danforth.

Throughout the majority of the primary and general campaign seasons Bush was leading Gore in the polls. On November 7, 2000, it was projected that Bush had won in Florida and its 25 electoral votes. Gore won the national popular vote but the Gore campaign lost the electoral college vote after a legal battle over disputed vote counts. Bush won the election on the electoral college vote of 271 to 266.

Background

In December 1991, Bush was one of seven people named by his father to run his father's 1992 presidential re-election campaign, as a "campaign advisor". Two years following his father's defeat Bush ran for the governorship of Texas in 1994 and defeated incumbent Ann Richards.

During the 1996 election cycle, Bush was urged by some party leaders to seek the Republican nomination, but he instead chose to endorse Senator Bob Dole, who won the nomination but lost the general election against Bill Clinton. Dick Cheney, his future vice president, was also urged to run, but he, too, refused to seek the nomination. Bush would temporarily be made co-chairman of the convention.

In 1998, Bush easily won reelection to the Texas governorship with almost 70% and had the best Latino performance for any Republican gubernatorial nominee, with 49% of the Latino vote.

On February 2, 1999, one month before Bush announced the formation of his presidential exploratory committee, Bush was asked by Steve Cooper if he had "ever used drugs? Marijuana, cocaine?". Bush refused to answer the question and would continue to dodge questions relating to his possible illegal drug use until August.

Announcement On March 7, 1999, Bush announced the creation of a presidential exploratory committee while surrounded by Governor John Engler, Senator Paul Coverdell, former Secretary of State George Shultz, former Republican National Committee chairman Haley Barbour, Jennifer Dunn, J. C. Watts, Henry Bonilla and Roy Blunt, all members of his newly formed committee, but chose not to disclose specific positions on national issues until he started formally campaigning in June. However, Bush did outline his philosophy of compassionate conservatism and his outreach plans to Hispanics.

Blunt said that eighty Republican House members had already endorsed Bush and the Bush campaign was focused on gaining the endorsement from the majority of Republican members of Congress. On May 26, one hundred fifteen Republican House members and several governors endorsed Bush seventeen days before his formal announcement.

During this time, multiple polls were showing that forty percent of Americans would vote against and another fifteen percent would not likely vote for his eventual opponent, Vice President Al Gore. The polls also showed that Bush would defeat Gore by a margin of 54% to 40%.

Campaign developments 1999

June

By the time that Bush had officially entered the primary race on June 12, 1999 eight other candidates, Bob Smith, John Kasich, Pat Buchanan, Lamar Alexander, Dan Quayle, Elizabeth Dole, Steve Forbes and Gary Bauer, had already entered with John McCain and Alan Keyes coming months later. Despite this crowded field Bush was able to raise $36.2 million eighteen days after his announcement, easily surpassing his opponents with Elizabeth Dole, who had the second highest donations total, only had $3.5 million, and by early July Bush would refuse $16.5 million in Federal matching funds as it would limit his spending as his donations were reaching the $40 million limit. Coincidentally, this action which Bush did to help his campaign also helped his opponents who were able to receive their matching funds earlier.

July

Orrin Hatch stated that "Bush doesn't have the experience to be president and was born in privilege," after he announced his own presidential campaign and that he would be there when Bush stumbles. However, by mid-July Bush's campaign fundraising and massive leads in the polls had already forced out two of his opponents, Bob Smith and John Kasich. Kasich would endorse Bush saying that "George Bush's term of 'compassionate conservative' really kind of defines what John Kasich is all about," and Bob Smith hinted at running for the U.S. Taxpayer party

Bush had also already campaigned in twelve states and the District of Columbia. As Bush was forcing out his opposition and campaigning, Senator McCain was campaigning months after his informal announcement in April in South Carolina after his decision to bypass the Iowa caucus.

August

On August 4 the first major scandal in the Bush campaign started after his refusal to answer whether he had ever used cocaine. Seventeen days later Bush won an Iowa straw poll and held a press conference in Austin, Texas where the question of his drug use was raised, causing him to become agitated. When asked if he thought the rumors were being planted Bush replied with "Do I think they are being planted? I know they are being planted, and they are ridiculous and they're absurd and the people of America are sick and tired of this kind of politics and I am not participating." The next day Bush would say that he had never used drugs since 1974 and that his FBI background check clears him of any possible drug use.

While this scandal was going on, another low-profile scandal popped up involving the firing of Democrat Eliza May as Texas's top funeral industry regulator. The Bush campaign along with multiple other Republican candidates attacked Al Gore due to his ties to Russia.

September

On September 2 Bush gave his first speech regarding his policy on education stating that his administration would require states to test disadvantaged students and proposed stripping federal funds from the worst-scoring schools and allowing private schools to get public money.

After campaigning in New Hampshire for months polling showed that Bush's numbers had risen eight percent since May from 37% to 45% while John McCain's fell two percent from 14% to 12% and was still behind Elizabeth Dole by three percent. Another poll at the time showed that Bush had increase his polling lead against Gore with 56% going to Bush and 39% going to Gore.

After Larry Gene Ashbrook committed a church shooting at Fort Worth, Texas Bush cut his campaign activities to return to Texas where he stated that "there seems to be a wave of evil passing through America now, and we as a society can pass laws and hold people accountable for the decisions they make, but our hopes and prayers have got to be that there is more love in society," and six days later Bush announced a gun crimes initiative.

On September 23 Bush was campaigning in South Carolina where he promised to renew a bond of trust between president and the military and attacked Bill Clinton for his endless and aimless deployments, which he promised to end.

Five days later Bush received a major endorsement when the Governor of Arizona, Jane Dee Hull, chose to endorse him instead of Arizona's own Senator McCain.

October

The Bush campaign enjoyed two major successes in the beginning of October where the mayor of New York City, Rudy Giuliani, endorsed Bush and a few days later a Quinnipiac Poll showed that Bush was matching Gore in New York, but was lagging behind Bill Bradley.

Despite his success in one New England state, Bush would refuse to participate in the New Hampshire forum, with his campaign stating that Bush would not participate in any debates before January.

By late October the Bush campaign had released its first television commercial in both Iowa and New Hampshire one week after Al Gore released one attacking the Senate Republicans for rejecting the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. At the same time on the 20th the Bush campaign had announced that it was leading in the polls in every state primary and caucus.

November After enjoying success after success in the previous months Bush was quizzed on his knowledge of foreign affairs on the fourth at WHDH-TV in Boston and he failed it with a score of 25%. Bush was asked to name the leaders of Chechnya, Taiwan, India and Pakistan, Bush was only able to name Lee Teng-hui of Taiwan.

More failures occurred as polls conducted by WNDS-TV and Franklin Pierce College showed that John McCain had risen in the polls with Bush falling from 45% for Bush and 12% for McCain in September to 38% for Bush and 30% for McCain. However, this was lessened when Bush was polling at 52% in Iowa, well ahead of Steve Forbes, who placed second with 13%, and safe from McCain who had decided to skip campaigning for the Iowa Caucus in favor of the New Hampshire Primary.

Despite these setbacks Bush's war chest still made him untouchable by the rest of the Republican field except for multi-millionaire Steve Forbes.

December

Despite his campaign's previous statement that Bush would not appear in a debate before January, Bush participated in a New Hampshire forum on the second. Most of the Republican candidates attacked Bush except for John McCain who, despite being in a dead heat with Bush in New Hampshire, exchanged pleasantries. After the debate pundit Tucker Carlson said that "Bush cannot afford too many more episodes like this one" and that "if the Bush market does crash, John McCain is almost certain to be the beneficiary". At a debate in Phoenix Bush was considered the loser, helping not his opponents who had participated in the debate, but instead John McCain who had skipped the debate.

During the previous months McCain had been focused on campaigning in New Hampshire while Bush was running a national campaign and by the ninth McCain had overtaken Bush and was leading him by seven points with 37%.

After suffering from numerous failures during this month Bush was still able to receive the endorsement of Lamar Alexander, who had ended his presidential campaign on August 16 after placing sixth place in the Iowa GOP straw poll on August 14. Another high point happened late in the month when Bush added another $10 million to his campaign war chest, reaching $67 million by the end of the year.

Campaign developments 2000

January

In early January Orrin Hatch attacked Bush's service as governor of Texas as a "constitutionally weak governorship".

On January 24 Bush won both the Alaska and Iowa caucuses with 36.28% and 41.01% respectively and two days later Hatch ended his campaign and endorsed Bush, saying that I believe Governor Bush is the one who can unite the party and bring the White House back to us, months after his criticism that "Bush doesn't have the experience to be president and was born in privilege".