Reagan wins nomination in 1976, who’s his VP, and can he win the election?

Bomster

Banned
The 1976 election is a fascinating one for me. Almost as fascinating as the 1968 election, the Republican primaries had Ronald Reagan, a future president, narrowly lose to Gerald Ford, a current president. If Reagan had won that nomination, who would he have picked to be his Veep? Bush? Dole? Hell, even Ford? Also could he have a chance at winning the general?
 
The 1976 election is a fascinating one for me. Almost as fascinating as the 1968 election, the Republican primaries had Ronald Reagan, a future president, narrowly lose to Gerald Ford, a current president. If Reagan had won that nomination, who would he have picked to be his Veep? Bush? Dole? Hell, even Ford? Also could he have a chance at winning the general?

Well he chose Richard Schweiker before the convention in oTL, so do we assume he wins the nomination without said endorsement and picks someone else?
 

Bomster

Banned
Well he chose Richard Schweiker before the convention in oTL, so do we assume he wins the nomination without said endorsement and picks someone else?
Oh I didn’t know that. My question is answered. But for fun, yes, assume Schweiker isn’t named.
 
You have to remember that the choice of Schweiker was a desperation move, at a time when Ford was ahead in delegates--indeed, he was very close to being over the top. (Hence, the unusual conduct of a non-incumbent announcing his running mate in advance.) Really, it was between Schweiker and Governor James Rhodes of Ohio:

"Previously, Sears had reviewed the situation with Laxalt after talking it over with Black and Keene. All parties agreed that something needed to be done, but the pickings in the GOP were pretty slim. Choices for a running mate came down to Governor Jim Rhodes of Ohio and Schweiker--although some conservatives felt a case could have been made for Senator James Buckley of New York.

"Rhodes controlled the ninety-seven Ohio delegates and most likely could have delivered them while not antagonizing Reagan's conservative delegates. All parties agreed that if winning the convention were the only goal, Rhodes would have made sense. But no one wanted to run a general election with the curmudgeonly and controversial Rhodes. Jules Witcover described him as 'slightly unsavory' in *Marathon* and Sears dryly told Witcover his feeling about the choice of Rhodes: 'You've got to have some responsibility in this business.'"
https://books.google.com/books?id=fPWPDH-0TZYC&pg=PA272

One should remember that Schweiker was not all *that* liberal, especially on non-economic issues (and on economic issues he was after all from a heavily unionized state)--in particular, he was pro-gun and anti-abortion. It was therefore plausible to think that he would not alienate conservatives too much. And Sears definitely thought Reagan had to reach out to moderates to win both the nomination and the election. He had tried to get William Ruckelshaus (a Catholic and a moderate from Indiana--and of course, along with Elilot Richardson, the man who had refused to fire Archibald Cox...) on the ticket--but Reagan already controlled the Indiana delegation, at least on the first ballot.

But Sears' real first choice is shocking--Nelson Rockefeller! When asked what the reaction of Helms and other conservatives would be, Sears replied "They would have come off the ceiling in a day or two." Sears added, "I thought very strongly that he [Rockefeller] would have liked the irony of it, and he had firm control of his delegates. And, Mrs. Reagan liked him a lot. But you couldn't trust that others wouldn't talk him out of it, and you couldn't take that chance."

"Although Rockefeller controlled Dick Rosenbaum and Rosenbaum controlled the vast majority of the New York delegation, it is unknown whether delegates would have gone along with them and supported Reagan had Rockefeller joined the ticket. Still, it was no secret that Rockefeller and Rosenbaum were angry and dismayed over the treatment afforded Rockefeller by Ford and the President Ford Committee. The question is whether Reagan could hold his conservative delegates in the face of such a selection..." https://books.google.com/books?id=fPWPDH-0TZYC&pg=PA273

(If the problem was not knowing whether Rocky would accept, one would think that the Reagan camp could have sent a trusted go-between to at least sound Rocky out about it. And after all, given that Ford was not going to keep him on the ticket, this is probably Rocky's only chance not to have his political career ended. How likely is it that he would be talked out of that?)

Also, on foreign policy, Rocky might not be that distant from Reagan. "[Stu] Spencer, in a 2000 interview with the author, also described Rockefeller as 'the toughest anti-Communist I ever saw. Much more than Reagan, much more than Barry. I said to him, 'Why?' He said, 'If you were a Rockefeller, wouldn't you be?'" https://books.google.com/books?id=yjuOAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT649

That being said, while Rockefeller was not as hated by conservatives in 1976 as he was in 1964, Sears' thinking that Helms, etc. "would have come off the ceiling in a day or two" may have been too optimistic.
 
He almost beat Ford at the convention, some have speculated that if the Gipper didn't make the mistake of prematurely naming his running mate then he might have won. If so, then it's Carter vs. Reagan four years early and Carter wins. It's true that the Gipper has all the charisma and Carter will still make those gaffes in Playboy, but Reagan was just too right wing to win in '76. Even in 1980, Carter was leading Reagan up until the TV debates where Reagan made a clear case that America wasn't any better off than it was under Republican rule. Reagan wouldn't be able to use this line of argument in '76 since it's Reagan's own party, not Carter, that's responsible for America's mess. So he loses and doesn't get a second chance in 1980. The GOP will blame their loss on nominating a conservative, like in 1968 they'll want a moderate and I have a feeling that Bush would be their man.
 
Why was this?

Rocky had moved somewhat to the right; in his 1970 re-election campaign he had made crime and welfare issues against Goldberg (whose campaign he charged was infested with left-wing "extremists") and only gave nominal support to his own Senate appointee Charles Goodell against Conservative James Buckley. https://books.google.com/books?id=ZlRpAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA313

And there was his tough anti-Communism in foreign policy, which I have already mentioned, although that was nothing new with him.

"... After his death, no less a conservative than William F. Buckley, long impressed by Rockefeller’s staunch anticommunism and more recently by his ability as governor to learn from his mistakes, wrote—in a judgment that would have appalled the yahoos at the 1964 convention—that it was “altogether possible” that Rockefeller “would have been a great president.”" https://www.wsj.com/articles/book-review-on-his-own-terms-by-richard-norton-smith-1413581036
 
Rocky had moved somewhat to the right; in his 1970 re-election campaign he had made crime and welfare issues against Goldberg (whose campaign he charged was infested with left-wing "extremists") and only gave nominal support to his own Senate appointee Charles Goodell against Conservative James Buckley. https://books.google.com/books?id=ZlRpAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA313

And there was his tough anti-Communism in foreign policy, which I have already mentioned, although that was nothing new with him.

"... After his death, no less a conservative than William F. Buckley, long impressed by Rockefeller’s staunch anticommunism and more recently by his ability as governor to learn from his mistakes, wrote—in a judgment that would have appalled the yahoos at the 1964 convention—that it was “altogether possible” that Rockefeller “would have been a great president.”" https://www.wsj.com/articles/book-review-on-his-own-terms-by-richard-norton-smith-1413581036
Thank you.

Anyway, when Rocky became Ford's VP, was he joining forces with Ford to stop Reagan from taking over the GOP?
 
All Reagan would need to win is swing Ohio and Texas.

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Other running mates:
- Former Governor and Former US Secretary of the Treasury, John B. Connally of Texas

- Secretary of Commerce Elliot Richardson of Massachusetts ~ slight nod to being against Nixon.

- Senator Jesse Helms, of North Carolina

- Senator Robert J. Dole of Kansas
 
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