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President Wilson had hoped that MINUSTAC would be a rallying point for his re-election campaign and something to which he could persuade Americans not to "change horses in midstream". But, things were not to go as planned. Diplomatic and logistical problems meant that MINUSTAC forces were unable to keep rebel militias and insurgencies from fading into the "bush" and the administration, wary of the sight of American soldiers combing through the jungle looking for enemy fighters bringing about comparisons with Vietnam, drastically undercut the ability of MINUSTAC field commanders to use American troops outside of occupation duty. As such, by summer 2000, the situation in the Congo had become one where the UN forces controlled major cities and nearby regions, while in remote provinces, the bloodbath that had brought UN troops there continued with only limited interruption.

In this environment, and owing to President Wilson being widely disliked among racial and ethnic minorities that made up quite a bit of the Democratic coalition, the Democrats' presidential field was full. Congressman Dick Gephardt of Missouri was best able to appeal to both union voters and the white working-class, although he was only able to become the front-runner after the withdrawal of Tennessee Senator Al Gore and the subsequent migration of Gore primary voters to him. Gephardt eventually won the nomination and decided to make history with the running mate selection, the second time in a row for the Democratic ticket, naming former Governor Ron Brown of New York to be his running mate, making Brown the first African-American on a major party ticket.

Wilson was able to rile up the conservatives in his party by portraying his agenda as being halted by "unelected, out-of-touch judges" in at the Supreme Court, and then revealed his major push for a second term: the revisiting of a free-trade agreement with Canada and Mexico that had been abandoned following the election of President Huddleston in 1988. Gephardt immediately promised to fight such an agreement and rallied his union base, with Brown harshly criticizing Wilson for promoting policies that he said "were aimed at pandering to the worst impulses of white Americans".



President Wilson became the second Republican president in a row to lose his battle for re-election, largely on the back of his polarizing domestic policies and the perception that American and UN troops were not doing anything in the Congo other than risking American blood and treasure. With Hispanic and African-Americans turning out in record numbers for the Gephardt-Brown ticket (the latter of whom making history as the first black Vice President and the first VP with non-white ancestry since Charles Curtis), the Democrats picked up Florida and New Mexico, and thwarting Wilson's efforts to win his home state in his re-election bid, which, twisting the knife even more for Wilson, would have given him a second term had he won it.