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United States presidential election, 1996



The United States presidential election of 1996 was a contest between the Democratic national ticket of Charles "Chuck" Spittal Robb of Virginia and Senator Al Gore of Tennessee and the Republican national ticket of Vice PresidentDan Quayle of Indiana for President and former Cabinet SecretaryJack Kemp of New York for Vice President. Businessman Ross Perot ran as candidate for the Reform Party with economist Pat Choate as his running mate: he received less media attention and was excluded from the presidential debates and, while still obtaining substantial results for a third-party candidate, by U.S. standards, did not renew his success in the 1992 election. Although Vice President Quayle was expected to benefit from an economy which recovered from the early 1990s recession, and a relatively stable world stage, on November 5, 1996, Senator Robb went on to defeat Quayle with a substantial margin in the popular vote and electoral college.

Background

In 1995, the United States Republican Party was riding high on the gains made in the 1994 congressional elections. In those elections, the Republicans, led by Newt Gingrich, captured the majority of seats in the United States House of Representatives for the first time in forty years and the majority of seats in the U.S. Senate for the first time in eight years. Outgoing President George H.W. Bush, who was barred from running for a third term under the U.S. Constitution, was still relatively popular, and the Republicans hoped his popularity would carry over into Quayle’s campaign.
Nominations

Democratic Party nomination

Main article: Democratic Party (United States) presidential primaries, 1996

Democratic candidates
Republican Party nomination

Republican candidates


Main article: Republican Party (United States) presidential primaries, 1996
  • Vice President Dan Quayle of Indiana
  • Columnist Pat Buchanan
  • Senator Bob Dole of Kansas
Overview After his narrower than expected reelection over Bill Clinton in 1992, President Bush was leaving office with relatively high approval ratings. Despite this, Vice President Quayle was seen as more beatable, and several Democrats who had decided not to challenge Bush in 1992 now chose to run. Quayle also continued to suffer from a reputation as a lightweight, leading to two surprisingly strong challenges from Buchanan and Senator Dole.
Senator Robb was one of the most ideologically centrist senators, and he often acted as a bridge between Democratic and Republican members, preferring background deal-making to seeking the legislative limelight. His fellow Democrats removed him from the Budget Committee for advocating deeper cuts in federal spending. In 1991, he was one of a handful of Democratic senators to support authorizing the use of force to expel Iraqi forces from Kuwait. That same year he was one of only eleven Democrats to vote in favor of Clarence Thomas's controversial nomination to the Supreme Court. In 1992 he was chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and during his term the DSCC raised record amounts of funding to elect seven new Democrats to the Senate.
Robb was more liberal on social issues. He voted for the Assault Weapons Ban[3] and against the execution of minors.[citation needed] He was opposed to a constitutional amendment to ban flag burning. In 1993, he supported President Clinton's proposal to adopt the Don't ask, don't tell policy on homosexuals in the armed forces. Three years later Robb was the only senator from a Southern state to oppose the Defense of Marriage Act.[4]
Robb’s candidacy was threatened by an earlier admission that he had spent time with former Miss Virginia USA Tai Collins alone in a hotel room during the time he was governor in the 1980s. However, he denied having an affair with her, merely admitting to sharing a bottle of champagne and receiving a nude massage. Collins later told Playboy magazine that the two had been having an affair since 1983. There were also rumors that during the time he was governor, Robb was present at parties where cocaine was used. He strongly denied this when the issue was raised during his 1988 campaign for the U.S. Senate. Robb so vehemently denied the cocaine allegation that he claimed to not even know what cocaine looked like. This claim only added to the sensationalism.
Also in 1991, three of Robb's aides resigned after listening to illegally-recorded cell phone conversations of Virginia Governor (and possible 1994 Senate primary opponent) Doug Wilder. The scandal of the phone conversation morphed into a federal grand jury investigation when it was learned that Robb's staff and Robb himself may have been guilty of conspiring to distribute the contents of an illegal wiretap. Robb and his staff claimed to be unaware of the fact that conversations on cell phones are protected by the same laws governing land lines. The grand jury concluded its work without indicting Robb.
In spite of these earlier scandals, Robb emerged as a centrist alternative to the more liberal Cuomo and went on to win his first primary in Georgia. Gore won the Utah and Maryland primaries and a caucus in Washington. Graham won caucuses in Idaho and Minnesota while Cuomo won Colorado. Casey dropped out two days later. Robb won the South Carolina and Wyoming primaries and Gore won Arizona. Cuomo dropped out. Graham won the Nevada caucus. Robb swept nearly all of the Super Tuesday primaries on March 10 making him the solid front runner. He also won the Michigan and Illinois primaries. Graham dropped out after finishing 3rd in Michigan. Gore scored surprising wins in Connecticut, Vermont and Alaska. As the race moved to the primaries in New York and Wisconsin, Gore had taken the lead in polls in both states. Robb won dramatically in New York (41%-26%) and closely in Wisconsin (37%-34%). Robb then proceeded to win a long streak of primaries leading up to California. Robb won this primary 48% to 41% and secured the delegates needed to clinch the nomination.
Campaign

Without further primary opposition, Robb was able to focus on the general election early, while Quayle was forced to move to the right and spend his campaign reserves fighting off challenges from conservative columnist Pat Buchanan and Senator Bob Dole of Kansas. Political adviser Dick Morris urged Robb to raise huge sums of campaign funds via soft money for an unprecedented early TV blitz of swing states promoting Robb's agenda and record. As a result, Robb could run a campaign through the summer defining his opponent as a conservative far from the mainstream before Quayle was in a position to respond.
Throughout the run-up to the general election, Robb maintained comfortable leads in the polls over Quayle and Dole, who dropped out after an embarrassing fall from the stage during a campaign event. The televised debates featured only Quayle and Robb, locking out Buchanan and the other minor candidates from the discussion.
Results



In the end, Senator Robb won a decisive victory over Quayle, becoming the first Democrat to win presidential reelection since Franklin Roosevelt. In the popular vote, he outpolled Quayle by over 8.2 million votes. The Electoral College map did not change much from the previous election, with the Democratic incumbent winning 379 votes to the Republican ticket's 159. In the West, Quayle managed to narrowly win Colorado and Montana (both had voted for Clinton in 1992), while Robb became the first Democrat to win the state of Arizona since Harry Truman in 1948. In the South, Robb took Florida from the Republicans in exchange for the less electoral-vote-rich Georgia. The election helped to cement Democratic Presidential prospects in states including California, Vermont, Maine, Illinois, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Delaware, and Connecticut; all went on to vote Democratic in subsequent Presidential elections, having voted Republican in the three prior to 1992. Those states also voted for Richard Nixon in the 1972 landslide. 1996 marked the first time since the 1944 Presidential contest that New Hampshire voted for a Democrat in two successive elections.


Now the question becomes what kind of a President Robb makes; does he win against Bush in 2000, etc. Discuss!
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