There were quite a few people who were not George H. W. Bush that were pursuing the nomination that could have gotten it.
The problem for me with people always saying that was Bush's year was that, besides the fact his only elected office was being a representative in the House between '67-'71. His following positions, UN Ambassador, Chair of the RNC, Chief Liaison to the PRC, and then Director of the CIA are all unelected positions given to rising stars and career diplomats and military types, not future presidents. Reagan got him to where he was. First, Bush had the effect of rallying together all of the moderate anti-Reagan GOP behind him. The rallying effect was not even that strong, he only won six states plus D.C. and 23.8%. Then, after losing, was able to reconcile with Reagan and agreed to be his Vice-President. After eight years in the Vice-Presidency, he claimed he was reawoken as a conservative and was able to win a one-term presidency off of that.
With no Reagan, there is no Bush. At the very least, his win is an unlikely outside chance.
People who joined the race who are not Reagan or Bush:
Rep. John Anderson of IL
Senator Howard Baker of TN
Rep. Phil Crane of IL
Treasury Secretary John Connally of TX
Senator Bob Dole of KS
Senator Larry Pressler of SD
Senator Lowell Weicker of CT
Honestly, this is a pretty good lineup of strong candidates who went absolutely nowhere.
I personally believe that Senator Baker, Senate Minority Leader and native Southerner, would be the best choice for the nomination. He would be the first native Southerner on a GOP ticket (BTW, even to this day there has never been a native Southerner on a GOP ticket) and was a moderate conservative and a leader within the Republican Party for years by that point. He would be a transformative president if put in Reagan's position but would not have used his position in the same way RWR did.
But I also have a real soft spot for the independent-leaning Larry Pressler, who would have had an even weirder presidency and legacy than Baker.
Just for fun, here's a list pulled from Wikipedia of people who decided not to run:
- Frank Borman, former astronaut from Indiana
- Bill Brock, RNC Chairman of Tennessee
- John Danforth, Senator from Missouri
- Pete du Pont, Governor of Delaware
- Gerald Ford, former President of the United States
- Jack Kemp, U.S. Representative from New York
- Alexander Haig, former NATO Commander
- John Heinz, Senator from Pennsylvania
- Charles Mathias, Senator from Maryland
- Charles Percy, Senator from Illinois
- Elliot Richardson, former United States Secretary of Commerce
- William Ruckelshaus, former Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
- Bill Simon, former United States Secretary of the Treasury
- Jim Thompson, Governor of Illinois