George H. W. Bush 1980 presidential campaign

For his 1988 and 1992 campaign, see George H. W. Bush 1988 presidential campaign and George H. W. Bush 1992 presidential campaign.

George H. W. Bush 1980 presidential campaign

Campaign	1980 Republican primaries 1980 U.S. presidential election
Candidate	George H. W. Bush, 11th Director of Central Intelligence (1976–1977)
Affiliation	Republican Party
Status	Announced, May 1, 1979 Withdrew, May 26, 1980
Headquarters	Washington, D.C.
Key people	James Baker, campaign manager Barber Conable, head of steering committee
Receipts	US$22.21 million (November 15, 1981)
Slogan	A President We Won't Have to Train

The 1980 presidential campaign of George H. W. Bush began when he announced he was running for the Republican Party's nomination in the 1980 United States presidential election, on May 1, 1979, after over 16 months of speculation as to when or whether he would run. Bush campaigned as an experienced, pragmatic conservative, stressing his résumé in Congress, diplomacy, China, and intelligence while presenting himself as a candidate of "substance, not symbols" and "reason, not bombast". At the outset of the primaries in 1980, Bush won the Iowa caucuses, but only won seven other primary contests, the rest being swept by Ronald Reagan. Bush withdrew on May 26, 1980, and later that year was selected by Reagan to be the Republican vice-presidential candidate, in a successful electoral bid that ultimately led to Bush's election as president in the 1988 United States presidential election.

Bush's bid was built around a long, labor-intensive organizing effort in the early states, especially Iowa and New Hampshire, and for a time it appeared to work. His upset victory in Iowa gave rise to the campaign's famous invocation of the "Big Mo", but the boost proved short-lived after Reagan rebounded in New Hampshire and then steadily built an insurmountable delegate lead.

Background

Prior to his candidacy, Bush had held a number of elected and appointed offices, most recently serving as the 11th Director of Central Intelligence Agency. Bush's tenure at the CIA ended after Jimmy Carter narrowly defeated Gerald Ford in the 1976 presidential election. Out of public office for the first time since the 1960s, Bush became chairman on the executive committee of the First International Bank in Houston. He also spent a year as a part-time professor of Administrative Science at Rice University's Jones School of Business, continued his membership in the Council on Foreign Relations, and joined the Trilateral Commission. Meanwhile, he began to lay the groundwork for his candidacy in the 1980 Republican Party presidential primaries, noting as early as December 1977 that he was "interested" in pursuing the 1980 Republican presidential nomination.

Bush's decision to run emerged from a long pre-campaign period rather than a sudden announcement. The Washington Post reported at the time of his formal entry that Bush had been actively positioning himself for well over a year and had already made a dozen trips to New Hampshire in 1979 alone, while later archival descriptions at the George H. W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum dated the official campaign files from January 1979 through December 1980. A later account in The New Yorker likewise stated that Bush had begun planning the race in the fall of 1977, three full years before the election, and spent 329 days on political travel in 1979 as he tried to build name recognition and organizational strength.

Campaign

Ronald Reagan, moderator Jon Breen, and Bush participate in the Nashua, New Hampshire, presidential debate, 1980

Bush ended the campaign winning six states, along with the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico (not pictured).

In the 1980 Republican primary campaign, Bush faced Ronald Reagan, who was widely regarded as the front-runner, as well as other contenders like Senator Bob Dole, Senator Howard Baker, Texas Governor John Connally, Congressman Phil Crane, and Congressman John B. Anderson. The Bush campaign acknowledged that Reagan and Connally were considered the early front-runners, and that Bush intended to "do as well as possible in the early primaries, and hope to pick up additional support if and when one of the front-runners falters".

Organization and strategy

Under campaign manager James Baker, Bush adopted a methodical early-state strategy that journalists repeatedly compared to Jimmy Carter's 1976 outsider campaign. Rather than rely on inevitability or national celebrity, Bush invested heavily in retail politics, frequent travel, and organizational buildup in Iowa and New Hampshire, seeking to emerge as Reagan's principal alternative without alienating either moderates or conservatives inside the Republican Party.

That strategy emphasized Bush's energy and résumé. Campaign literature and appearances highlighted his service as a congressman, U.N. ambassador, Republican National Committee chairman, envoy to China, and CIA director, while also stressing his military record as a Navy pilot in World War II. Bush's allies hoped that his breadth of government experience would contrast favorably with Reagan's more ideological public persona and with the narrower bases of support held by the other Republican candidates.

Announcement and themes

Campaign alternate logo

Bush officially announced his candidacy in a speech on the morning of May 1, 1979, criticizing "tax and spend" policies which he broadly attributed to the Democratic Party, while not mentioning President Carter by name. Bush's campaign cast him as a youthful, "thinking man's candidate" who would emulate the pragmatic conservatism of President Eisenhower. Amid the Afghan–Soviet War, which brought an end to a period of détente, and the Iran hostage crisis, in which 52 Americans were taken hostage, the campaign also highlighted Bush's foreign policy experience.

At the National Press Club announcement, Bush promised a "new candor" in government and argued that the country faced "hard choices" if it wanted to reduce inflation and restrain federal spending. The Washington Post reported that Bush explicitly contrasted his own politics of "substance, not symbols; of reason, not bombast; of frankness, not false promise" with the tone of his rivals, an implicit swipe at Reagan and Connally. Those themes remained central throughout the campaign, which tried to market Bush as an experienced but younger alternative to Reagan and as a conservative whose style was less polarizing and more managerial.

Primaries

Main article: 1980 Republican Party presidential primaries

Reagan's campaign director John Sears deciding to capitalize on Reagan's initial polling lead with an "above the fray" strategy. While Reagan did not attend many of the multi-candidate forums and straw polls in the summer and fall of 1979, Bush did go to all the so-called "cattle calls", and began to come in first at a number of these events. At the outset of the race, Bush focused heavily on winning the January 21 Iowa caucuses, making 31 visits to the state. He won a close victory in Iowa with 31.5% to Reagan's 29.4%, which "surprised most observers". After the win, Bush stated that his campaign was full of momentum, or "the Big Mo", and Reagan reorganized his campaign.

Bush's Iowa strategy closely followed the kind of exhaustive retail politics that had helped Carter in 1976. Iowa PBS later summarized the approach as coming "early and often" to build relationships and awareness while Reagan pursued a lighter strategy, and James Baker recalled that Bush had been little more than "an asterisk in the polls" before the caucuses. Bush's Iowa success quickly made him the principal anti-Reagan alternative, but it also elevated expectations for the next contests.

Reagan boycotted the Puerto Rico primary in deference to New Hampshire, allowing Bush to win the territory easily, giving him an early lead going into New Hampshire. Partly in response to the Bush campaign's frequent questioning of Reagan's age (Reagan turned 69 in 1980), the Reagan campaign stepped up attacks on Bush, painting him as an elitist who was not truly committed to conservatism. Prior to the New Hampshire primary, Bush and Reagan agreed to a two-person debate, organized by The Nashua Telegraph but paid for by the Reagan campaign. Days before the debate, Reagan announced that he would invite four other candidates to the debate; Bush, who had hoped that the one-on-one debate would allow him to emerge as the main alternative to Reagan in the primaries, refused to debate the other candidates. All six candidates took the stage, but Bush refused to speak in the presence of the other candidates. At the beginning of the debate, Reagan was interrupting the debate moderator, Jon Breen, who was attempting to ask the first debate question, for Reagan to announce his intention of including the other four candidates. As Reagan tried to explain his intention, Breen asked Bob Malloy, the volume operator, to mute Reagan's microphone. When Malloy did not do so, Breen repeated his request in muting Reagan's microphone. Reagan angrily retaliated by shouting, "I am paying for this microphone, Mr. Green! [sic]". Ultimately, the other four candidates left the stage, and the debate continued, but Bush's refusal to debate anyone other than Reagan badly damaged his campaign in New Hampshire. He decisively lost New Hampshire's primary to Reagan, winning just 23 percent of the vote.

The Washington Post reported from New Hampshire that Bush emerged from one pre-primary debate "unscathed," but Reagan's broader recovery in the state, combined with the Nashua showdown, shifted the momentum of the race. What Bush had hoped would be a clean two-man confrontation instead became one of the most famous moments of Reagan's 1980 campaign and helped Reagan reassert command of the Republican field.

Bush revitalized his campaign with a victory in Massachusetts but lost the next several primaries. As Reagan built up a commanding delegate lead, Bush refused to end his campaign, but the other candidates dropped out of the race. Criticizing his more conservative rival's policy proposals, Bush famously labeled Reagan's supply side-influenced plans for massive tax cuts as "voodoo economics". Though he favored lower taxes, Bush feared that dramatic reductions in taxation would lead to deficits and, in turn, cause inflation. As the race dragged on and Reagan's delegate lead became increasingly insurmountable, journalist Nicholas von Hoffman published an op-ed sarcastically accusing Bush of trying to physically weary a "tired" Reagan by forcing the older candidate to continue campaigning after the outcome of race was no longer in serious doubt. The following day, Bush withdrew his candidacy and endorsed Reagan, urging his convention delegates to support Reagan. Bush blamed the failure of his campaign on the media having written about the campaign as if Reagan's victory was a foregone conclusion, dampening Bush's ability to engage in needed fundraising.

As his campaign collapsed, Bush argued that he had at least demonstrated strength in parts of the Republican coalition Reagan could not ignore. The Washington Post wrote that Bush emphasized his victories in the Northeast and industrial Midwest and insisted that those states would be crucial to any Republican nominee in the fall. The same report described Bush as the last surviving major challenger to Reagan and credited his stamina, organization, and résumé for keeping him in the race after better-known rivals such as Connally, Baker, and Dole had fallen away.

Ultimately, Bush won eight primary contests, of which six were states, in Iowa (January 21), Puerto Rico (February 17), Massachusetts (March 4), Connecticut (March 25), Maine (April 19), Pennsylvania (April 22), Washington, D.C. (May 6), and Michigan (May 20). His campaign spent $16.2 million, and ended with $300,000 in debt.

The Reagan–Bush ticket won the 1980 presidential election with 50.7% of the popular vote and a large majority of the electoral vote.

Major endorsements

• Francis W. Hatch Jr. of Massachusetts, former state representative
• Henry Cabot Lodge Jr. of Massachusetts, former senator, ambassador and 1960 Republican Vice-Presidential nominee
• Elliot Richardson of Massachusetts, former United States Attorney General and Commerce Secretary
• William B. Saxbe of Ohio, former senator and U.S. Attorney General
• Robert Taft Jr. of Ohio, former senator

National polls

Over the course of the campaign, polls were periodically conducted by Gallup, Inc. Throughout the race, Bush never led in the polls, and was often in single digits, and was often in fifth place or worse. Bush had his best polling outcome after winning the Iowa caucuses in late January, at which time Bush polled at 28%, with Reagan polling at 29%. By February, Reagan's lead had again widened.

Publication date	John Anderson	Howard Baker	George Bush	John Connally	Bob Dole	Gerald Ford	Ronald Reagan	Others
July 1978	–	9%	1%	5%	4%	37%	31%	5%
Dec. 1978	1%	9%	1%	6%	1%	24%	40%	11%
Apr. 1979	2%	8%	1%	12%	1%	26%	31%	11%
May 1979	–	10%	–	8%	3%	27%	28%	–
June 1979	0%	11%	0%	5%	0%	29%	37%	5%
July 1979	3%	11%	1%	9%	2%	27%	32%	15%
Aug. 1979	1%	10%	3%	8%	1%	21%	29%	16%
Nov. 1979	1%	14%	2%	10%	3%	22%	33%	15%
Nov. 1979	0%	11%	5%	8%	3%	24%	40%	—
Dec. 1979	1%	9%	7%	10%	4%	18%	40%	10%
Jan. 1980	3%	9%	9%	9%	0%	27%	33%	—
Jan. 1980	0%	6%	28%	7%	0%	18%	29%	—
Feb. 1980	2%	6%	17%	4%	1%	32%	34%	3%
Feb. 1980	3%	7%	16%	–	–	25%	44%	—

Aftermath

1980 Republican Party Ticket

Campaign	U.S. presidential–vice-presidential election, 1980
Candidate	George H. W. Bush (vice-presidential) Director of Central Intelligence, 1976–1977
Affiliation	Republican Party
Status	Official VP nominee: July 17, 1980 Elected VP: November 4, 1980 Inaugurated VP: January 20, 1981

Reagan–Bush ticket

Main articles: 1980 Republican Party vice presidential candidate selection and Ronald Reagan 1980 presidential campaign

See also: Vice presidency of George H. W. Bush

After Reagan clinched a majority of delegates in late May, Bush reluctantly dropped out of the race. At the 1980 Republican National Convention, Reagan made the last-minute decision to select Bush as his vice presidential nominee after negotiations with Ford regarding a Reagan–Ford ticket collapsed. Though Reagan had resented many of the Bush campaign's attacks during the primary campaign, and several conservative leaders had actively opposed Bush's nomination, Reagan ultimately decided that Bush's popularity with moderate Republicans made him the best and safest pick. Bush, who had believed his political career might be over following the primaries, eagerly accepted the position and threw himself into campaigning for the Reagan–Bush ticket.

The Washington Post reported that Bush's selection came after a frantic day of failed negotiations with former President Ford and initially stunned delegates who had expected a "dream ticket" pairing Reagan and Ford. In his convention acceptance speech, Reagan thanked delegates for their response to "my recommendation in regard to George Bush as a candidate for vice president," underscoring how quickly Bush had moved from Reagan's sharpest remaining rival to his running mate.

The 1980 general election campaign between Reagan and Carter was conducted amid a multitude of domestic concerns and the ongoing Iran hostage crisis, and Reagan sought to focus the race on Carter's handling of the economy. Though the race was widely regarded as a close contest for most of the campaign, Reagan ultimately won over the large majority of undecided voters. Reagan took 50.7 percent of the popular vote and 489 of the 538 electoral votes, while Carter won 41% of the popular vote and John Anderson, running as an independent candidate, won 6.6% of the popular vote. Bush served as vice-president for eight years, and was himself elected president in 1988.

See also

• 1980 Republican Party presidential primaries
• 1980 Republican Party vice presidential candidate selection
• 1980 Republican National Convention
• 1980 United States presidential election
• George H. W. Bush 1988 presidential campaign
• George H. W. Bush 1992 presidential campaign

References

Works cited

• Meacham, Jon (2015). Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush. Random House. ISBN 978-1-4000-6765-7.
• Patterson, James (2005). Restless Giant: The United States from Watergate to Bush v. Gore. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195122169.
• Rossinow, Douglas C. (2015). The Reagan Era: A History of the 1980s. Columbia University Press. ISBN 9780231538657.