Everything about 1976 Republican National Convention totally explained
The
1976 National Convention of the
Republican Party of the
United States met at
Kemper Arena in
Kansas City,
Missouri, from
August 16 to
August 19 1976. The
convention nominated incumbent
Gerald Ford for
President, but only after narrowly defeating a strong challenge from former
California governor Ronald Reagan. The convention also nominated
Kansas Senator Robert J. Dole for
Vice President, replacing the incumbent
V.P., former
New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller. The
keynote address was delivered by
Tennessee Senator
Howard Baker.
Although Ford had won more primary delegates than Reagan, as well as plurality in popular vote, he didn't have enough to secure the nomination, and as the convention opened both candidates were seen as having a chance to win. Because of this, both Ford and Reagan arrived in Kansas City before the convention opened to woo the remaining uncommitted delegates in an effort to secure the nomination. Reagan benefited from his highly committed delegates, notably "Reagan's Raiders" of the
Texas delegation. They and other
conservative Western and
Southern delegates particularly faulted the Ford Administration's
foreign policy of
détente towards the
Soviet Union, criticizing his signing of the
Helsinki Accords and indirectly blaming him for the April 1975
Fall of Saigon. The pro-Reagan Texas delegates worked hard to persuade delegates from other states to support Reagan. Ford, meanwhile, used all of the perks and
patronage of the Presidency to win over wavering delegates, including trips aboard
Air Force One and personal meetings with the President himself.
Floor Fight
Reagan had promised, if nominated, to name Senator
Richard Schweiker of
Pennsylvania as his
running mate, in a bid to attract liberals and centrists in the party. This move backfired, however, as many conservatives (such as Senator Helms) were infuriated by Reagan's choice of the "liberal" Schweiker, while few moderate delegates switched to Reagan. Helms promptly began a movement to draft conservative Senator
James L. Buckley of New York as the presidential nominee.
The key vote of the convention occurred when Reagan's managers proposed a rules change that would have required Ford to publicly announce his running mate before the presidential balloting. Reagan's managers hoped that when Ford announced his choice for vice-president, it would anger one of the two factions of the party and thus help Reagan. The proposed rules change, however, was defeated by a vote of 1180 to 1069, and Ford gained the momentum he needed to win the nomination. The balloting for president was still close, however, as Ford won the nomination with 1187 votes to 1070 votes for Reagan (and one for
Elliot L. Richardson of Massachusetts).
Reagan endorsed Ford after his defeat, and gave an eloquent and stirring speech that overshadowed Ford's own acceptance address. Some delegates later stated that they left the convention wondering if they'd voted for the wrong candidate.
Ford selected Kansas Senator
Robert J. Dole as his running-mate in preference to Vice President Nelson Rockefeller; Rockefeller had announced that he didn't wish to be a candidate for Vice President in 1976 the previous fall, in no small part because it was believed that Rockefeller was too far to the left to be acceptable to the G.O.P. base. Some sources suggest that the cabinet shake-up and the eclipse of Rockefeller had been engineered in October 1975 by Ford's
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Ford's
White House Chief of Staff,
Dick Cheney.
Platform
Conservatives succeeded in inserting several key planks into the party platform, some of which were implicitly critical of the President's own policies. Reagan and
North Carolina Senator
Jesse Helms successfully had a "moral foreign policy" plank inserted. In light of the
1973 Roe v. Wade decision, the 1976 Republican platform became the first to advocate a
Human Life Amendment to the
Constitution.
The 1976 Republican National Convention was the last major party convention,
as of 2008, where the party's nominee wasn't decided before the primary process concluded.
Tally
Presidential
Source
Vice Presidential
Bob Dole - 1,921 (85.04%)
Abstaining - 103 (4.56%)
Jesse Helms - 103 (4.56%)
Ronald Reagan - 27 (1.20%)
Phil Crane - 23 (1.02%)
John Grady - 19 (0.84%)
Louis Frey - 9 (0.40%)
Anne Armstrong - 6 (0.27%)
Howard Baker - 6 (0.27%)
William F. Buckley - 4 (0.18%)
John B. Connally - 4 (0.18%)
David C. Treen - 4 (0.18%)
Alan Steelman - 3 (0.13%)
Edmund Bauman - 2 (0.09%)
Bill Brock - 2 (0.09%)
Paul Laxalt - 2 (0.09%)
Elliot Richardson - 2 (0.09%)
Richard Schweiker - 2 (0.09%)
William E. Simon - 2 (0.09%)
Jack Wellborn - 2 (0.09%)
James Allen - 1 (0.04%)
Ray Barnhardt - 1 (0.04%)
George H. W. Bush - 1 (0.04%)
Pete Domenici - 1 (0.04%)
James B. Edwards - 1 (0.04%)
Frank S. Glenn - 1 (0.04%)
David Keane - 1 (0.04%)
James McClure - 1 (0.04%)
Nancy Palm - 1 (0.04%)
Donald Rumsfeld - 1 (0.04%)
John W. Sears - 1 (0.04%)
Roger Staubach - 1 (0.04%)
Steve Symms - 1 (0.04%)
SourceFurther Information
Get more info on '1976 Republican National Convention'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://1976_republican_national_convention.totallyexplained.com">1976 Republican National Convention Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
