Democratic Party (United States) presidential primaries, 1992
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The 1992 Democratic presidential primary chose the Democratic nominee for the general election.
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[edit] Candidates
- Larry Agran, mayor of Irvine, California
- Edmund G. "Jerry" Brown Jr., former governor of California and candidate for the 1976 and 1980 nominations
- William J. Clinton, governor of Arkansas (nominee)
- Thomas R. Harkin, U.S. senator from Iowa
- J. Robert Kerrey, U.S. senator from Nebraska
- Tom Laughlin, film actor and director from California
- Eugene McCarthy, former U.S. senator from Minnesota and candidate for the 1968 and 1972 nominations, as well as an independent run for the presidency in 1976
- Paul E. Tsongas, former U.S. senator from Massachusetts
- L. Douglas Wilder, governor of Virginia
- Charles Woods, millionaire Alabama businessman and frequent candidate for U.S. Senate and for Governor of Alabama.
- In addition, Ralph Nader ran a write-in campaign in the New Hampshire primary, Lyndon LaRouche made his usual run for the nomination and as before was not recognized by the party as a serious candidate, and there were several other lesser-known primary candidates whose names appeared only on the New Hampshire ballot.
[edit] History
The 1992 election was thought to be nearly unwinnable by many Democrats. President Bush was extremely popular after the Gulf War and the nation's poor economy did not seem to hurt his record popularity. Thus, many of the most noted Democrats, such as New York Governor Mario Cuomo and House Majority leader Dick Gephardt, stayed out of the election.
Harkin had an early victory in his home state of Iowa, a contest that was largely uncontested by the other candidates, but fared poorly elsewhere. Tsongas emerged as the early front runner and won the New Hampshire Primary. During the summer of 1991, Clinton had been polling strongly, but a collection of sex scandals exploded and during the winter he plummeted to single digit support. After finishing a surprisingly strong second in New Hampshire he was proclaimed to be the "comeback kid" and gained a great deal of momentum. Meanwhile, Tsongas became plagued by questions about his health and withdrew, while Brown, who had done so poorly in the early primaries was about to lose his matching funds, unexpectedly emerged victorious in Colorado.
Clinton won a major victory in Illinois and began to sweep the rest of the country, when as part of a minor backlash Brown won in Connecticut. There was a show-down brewing in New York between the two rivals, when a group of people decided to force Tsongas, who was still on the ballot there, back in the race. This was surpisingly successful, and Tsongas came in a close second, effectively ending Brown's challenge. The rest of the primary campaign unfolded uneventfully.
[edit] Convention
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Pennsylvania Governor Bob Casey was the most prominent pro-life Democrat and he demanded publicly to give a minority plank on abortion at the Convention. However, he was "barred from addressing the... Convention because of his antiabortion views."[1] At the time Casey was a popular Governor from a large swing state that had 23 electoral votes.
Casey wrote to DNC Chairman Ron Brown a week and a half before the convention, asking to address the delegates, but Brown never responded to the letter. Instead, Kathy Taylor, a Republican from Pennsylvania who had worked for Casey's 1990 GOP opponent, Barbara Hafer, delivered a pro-choice speech. After her speech DNC officials allegedly sent a camera crew with Taylor to seek out Casey and "humiliate him" on live television. Casey, having been tipped off to the plans, was able to get out of the arena before the cameras arrived. Vice Presidential candidate Al Gore called Casey the next day to apologize.[2]
Democratic Party officials later claimed that Casey was not denied a speaking role because he wished to speak about his pro-life views, but rather because he had declined to endorse the party's nominee, Bill Clinton.[3] However others, such as Kathleen Brown, did not endorse Clinton but were allowed to address the convention. Casey was quoted in the New York Times saying, "I support the ticket. Period."[4]
[edit] Outside resources
The story of the race was covered in the film The War Room and fictionalized into the novel and film Primary Colors.
[edit] References
- Clinton, Bill (2005). My Life. Vintage. ISBN 1-4000-3003-X.
- ^ Shailagh Murray (January 21, 2007). "Democrats Seek to Avert Abortion Clashes". The Washington Post.
- ^ [The Truth About Gov. Bob Casey and The 1992 DNC Convention].
- ^ Michael Crowley, "Casey Closed," The New Republic, September 16, 1996.
- ^ Michael Decourcy Hinds, “Pennsylvania; Democratic Ticket Heads Into Fertile Territory,” New York Times July 19, 1992, Section 1, Page 20
