2000 United States presidential election
The 2000 United States presidential election was the 54th quadrennial presidential election, held on November 7, 2000. Republican candidate George W. Bush, the governor of Texas and eldest son of the 41st president, George H. W. Bush, won the disputed election, defeating Democratic nominee Al Gore, the incumbent vice president. It was the fourth of five presidential elections, and the first in 112 years in which the winning candidate lost the popular vote.
About 2000 United States presidential election in brief
The 2000 United States presidential election was the 54th quadrennial presidential election, held on November 7, 2000. Republican candidate George W. Bush, the governor of Texas and eldest son of the 41st president, George H. W. Bush, won the disputed election, defeating Democratic nominee Al Gore, the incumbent vice president. It was the fourth of five presidential elections, and the first in 112 years in which the winning candidate lost the popular vote. Both major-party candidates focused primarily on domestic issues, such as the budget, tax relief, and reforms for federal social insurance programs. On election night, it was unclear who had won, with the electoral votes of the state of Florida still undecided. A month-long series of legal battles led to the highly controversial 5–4 Supreme Court decision Bush v. Gore, which ended the recount. Ultimately, Bush won 271 electoral votes, one more than a majority, despite Gore receiving 543,895 more votes. Bush won 11 states that had voted Democratic in the 1996 election: Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, Tennessee and West Virginia. President Bill Clinton, a Democrat and former Governor of Arkansas, was ineligible to seek reelection to a third term due to the Twenty-second Amendment, and in accordance with Section 1 of the Twentieth Amendment, his term expired at noon Eastern Time on January 20, 2001. Bush became the early front-runner, acquiring unprecedented funding and a broad base of leadership support based on his governorship of Texas. Former cabinet member George Shultz played an important early role in securing establishment Republican support for Bush.
In April 1998, he invited Bush to discuss policy issues with experts including Michael Boskin, John Taylor, and Condoleezza Rice, who later became his Secretary of State. Several aspirants withdrew before the Iowa Caucus because they did not secure enough endorsements to remain competitive with Bush. That left Bush, John McCain, Alan Keyes, Steve Forbes, Gary Orrin Hatch and Alan Bauer as the only candidates still in the race. The national media portrayed Bush as the establishment candidate with the support of many moderate Republicans and Independents. Two days later, McCain won the Iowa caucus with 41% of the vote with Steve Forbes coming in second with 30%. McCain later dropped out and Bush won the race with 41%. Two days after the Iowa caucuses, Bush was endorsed by the Republican National Committee as the Republican candidate for the 2000 presidential election. Bush was seen as the early favorite for the Republican nomination and despite a contentious primary battle with Senator John McCain and others, secured the nomination by Super Tuesday. Bush chose former Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney as his running mate, while Gore chose Senator Joe Lieberman. The election is considered one of the closest elections in US history. The general election in November is also an indirect election, where voters cast ballots for a slate of members of the Electoral College; these electors in turn directly elect the president and vice President.
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This page is based on the article 2000 United States presidential election published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 19, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
