From January 19 to June 8, 2004, voters of the
Republican Party chose its nominee for
president
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
* President (education), a leader of a college or university
* President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...
in the
2004 United States presidential election. Incumbent President
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
was again selected as the nominee through a series of
primary elections and
caucuses culminating in the
2004 Republican National Convention
The 2004 Republican National Convention took place from August 30 to September 2, 2004 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York. The convention is one of a series of historic quadrennial meetings at which the Republican candidates fo ...
held from August 30 to September 2, 2004, in New York City.
Primary race overview
Incumbent President George W. Bush announced in mid-2003 that he would campaign for re-election; he faced no major challengers. He then went on, throughout early 2004, to win every nomination contest, including a sweep of
Super Tuesday
Super Tuesday is the United States presidential primary election day in February or March when the greatest number of U.S. states hold primary elections and caucuses. Approximately one-third of all delegates to the presidential nominating co ...
, beating back the vacuum of challengers and maintaining the recent tradition of an easy primary for incumbent Presidents (the last time an incumbent was seriously challenged in a presidential primary contest was when Senator
Ted Kennedy
Edward Moore Kennedy (February 22, 1932 – August 25, 2009) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Massachusetts for almost 47 years, from 1962 until his death in 2009. A member of the Democratic ...
challenged
Jimmy Carter
James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 76th governor of Georgia from 1 ...
for the
Democratic nomination in 1980). Bush managed to raise US$130 million in 2003 alone, and expected to set a national primary
fund-raising
Fundraising or fund-raising is the process of seeking and gathering voluntary financial contributions by engaging individuals, businesses, charitable foundations, or governmental agencies. Although fundraising typically refers to efforts to gathe ...
record of $200 million by the time of the
2004 Republican National Convention
The 2004 Republican National Convention took place from August 30 to September 2, 2004 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York. The convention is one of a series of historic quadrennial meetings at which the Republican candidates fo ...
in New York City.
Several states and territories canceled their respective Republican primaries altogether, citing Bush being the only candidate to qualify on their respective ballot, including Connecticut, Florida, Mississippi, New York, Puerto Rico, and South Dakota.
Senator
Lincoln Chafee
Lincoln Davenport Chafee ( ; born March 26, 1953) is an American politician. He was mayor of Warwick, Rhode Island from 1993 to 1999, a United States Senator from 1999 to 2007, and the 74th Governor of Rhode Island from 2011 to 2015. He was a m ...
of
Rhode Island
Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020, but it ...
, an opponent of the
war in Iraq
This is a list of wars involving the Republic of Iraq and its predecessor states.
Other armed conflicts involving Iraq
* Wars during Mandatory Iraq
** Ikhwan raid on South Iraq 1921
* Smaller conflicts, revolutions, coups and periphery confli ...
, Bush's tax cuts, drilling in the
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR or Arctic Refuge) is a national wildlife refuge in northeastern Alaska, United States on traditional Gwich'in lands. It consists of in the Alaska North Slope region. It is the largest national wildli ...
, and much of Bush's social agenda, considered challenging Bush in the
New Hampshire primary in the fall of 2003. He decided not to run, after the capture of
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolutio ...
in December 2003. He would later change his party affiliation to
Democratic and run in
that party's 2016 presidential primaries.
Candidates
Nominee
Challengers
On the ballot in two or more primaries
* William Tsangares ran for president under the pseudonym "Bill Wyatt." The then-43-year-old T-shirt maker left the Democratic Party to become a Republican after Democrats voted for the war in Iraq, an action he saw as a betrayal. Tsangares traveled 12,000 miles and spent an estimated $20,000 on his Presidential campaign. He managed to get on the ballot in New Hampshire, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Louisiana, and even the Democratic Primary ballot in Arizona. He finished tenth in the New Hampshire primary with 0.23% of the vote (153 votes), placed second in Missouri, where he received 1,268 votes (1.03%). However, a minor upset occurred on Mini-Tuesday when Tsangares won just over 10% of the vote in Oklahoma and 4% in Louisiana. He also received 233 votes (0.10%) in the Arizona Democratic primary.
* Blake Ashby, a Republican entrepreneur frustrated with the explosion of debt under President Bush, ran as a protest candidate in the Republican primaries. On the ballot in New Hampshire and Missouri, he spent approximately $20,000 on his campaign, visiting New Hampshire and campaigning in his home state of Missouri and participated in the C-Span Minor Candidates Forum He finished seventh in New Hampshire with 264 votes
and third in Missouri with 981 votes.
On the ballot in one primary
All but one of the following were on the ballot only in the state of New Hampshire.
File:Jack Fellure (cropped).jpg, Retired engineer Jack Fellure
Lowell Jackson Fellure (October 3, 1931 – July 31, 2022) was an American Perennial candidate, perennial political candidate and engineer. He was the presidential nominee of the Prohibition Party for the 2012 United States presidential election, ...
of West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the B ...
got 14 votes in the North Dakota Caucases
File:Tom Laughlin 1978.jpg, Actor Tom Laughlin
Thomas Robert Laughlin Jr. (August 10, 1931 – December 12, 2013) was an American actor, director, screenwriter, author, educator, and activist.
Laughlin was best known for his series of ''Billy Jack'' films. He was married to actress D ...
of California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
Declined to be candidates
File:Donald Trump cropped (cropped).jpeg,
File:Jesse Ventura 1996 (cropped).jpg,
File:Lincoln Chafee official portrait (cropped).jpg,
File:Ron Paul, official 109th Congress photo.jpg,
File:Judge_Roy_Moore_(cropped).jpg,
Results
There were 2,509 total delegates to the
2004 Republican National Convention
The 2004 Republican National Convention took place from August 30 to September 2, 2004 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York. The convention is one of a series of historic quadrennial meetings at which the Republican candidates fo ...
, of which 650 were so-called "
superdelegates" who were not bound by any particular state's
primary or
caucus votes and could change their votes at any time. A candidate needs 1,255 delegates to become the nominee. Except for the
Northern Mariana Islands
The Northern Mariana Islands, officially the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI; ch, Sankattan Siha Na Islas Mariånas; cal, Commonwealth Téél Falúw kka Efáng llól Marianas), is an unincorporated territory and commonw ...
and
Midway Atoll, all states, territories, and other inhabited areas of the United States offer delegates to the 2004 Republican National Convention.
Counties carried
See also
*
2004 Democratic Party presidential primaries
From January 14 to June 8, 2004, voters of the Democratic Party chose its nominee for president in the 2004 United States presidential election.
Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts was selected as the nominee through a series of primary electi ...
References
Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Republican Party (United States) Presidential Primaries, 2004