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1992 Republican Party presidential primaries

← 1988 February 18 to June 9, 1992 1996 →
2,209 delegates to the Republican National Convention 1,105 (majority) votes needed to win
Candidate George H. W. Bush Pat Buchanan Home state Texas Virginia Delegate count 1,544 367 Contests won 51 0 Popular vote 9,199,463 2,899,488 Percentage 72.8% 23.0%
Gold denotes a state won by George H. W. Bush. Grey denotes a state or territory that did not hold a primary/caucus.
Previous Republican nominee George H. W. Bush Republican nominee George H. W. Bush

Presidential primaries and caucuses of the Republican Party took place within all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia between February 18 to June 9, 1992. The contests chose the 2,277 delegates sent to the national convention in Houston, Texas from August 17 to August 20, 1992, who selected the Republican Party's nominees for president and vice president in the 1992 United States presidential election and approved the party's platform. President George H. W. Bush was again selected as the nominee. The Republican ticket of President Bush and Vice President Dan Quayle went on to lose the general election to the Democratic ticket of Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton and Tennessee Senator Al Gore.

Primary race overview

President George H. W. Bush was challenged by conservative commentator Pat Buchanan, and during the early counting of the votes at the New Hampshire primary, it appeared that the president might actually lose. However, Buchanan faded by the end of the evening, and Bush won the rest of the primaries. Bush's margins in many of the primaries were not as large as expected, and led to the rise of Ross Perot as an independent candidate.

Republican Louisiana State Representative and former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke also ran in a number of primaries, but he did not receive any delegates. Former Governor Harold Stassen of Minnesota also made a quixotic bid for support in the Minnesota primary, winning enough votes to entitle him to one delegate, but was later denied his single vote by machinations at the Minnesota Republican Party's 1992 state convention.

New Hampshire primary

As Buchanan's candidacy relied heavily on a strong showing in the New Hampshire primary, President Bush made New Hampshire a focal point in his reelection bid. However, New Hampshire still remained a pivotal base for Buchanan's primary campaign.

Because Bush was widely perceived to have broken his "read my lips" pledge, Buchanan found support in the economically battered and conservative state of New Hampshire. Making Bush's tax-hikes a central theme of his campaign, Buchanan enjoyed healthy grass-roots support despite lagging behind the president in pre-primary polling.

Bush countered the threat posed by Buchanan by touring New Hampshire himself. He memorably told an audience at an Exeter town hall: "Message: I care". Some sources claim that this was the result of Bush mistakenly reading a cue card aloud.

On primary night, President Bush carried New Hampshire with 53% of the vote. Buchanan finished second with 38% of the vote.

The rest of the race

Despite many in the Bush campaign attempting to push Buchanan out of the race, the strong showing made the Buchanan campaign hope for an outpouring of campaign contributions which galvanized the campaign into making efforts to pull out strong showings such as in the Georgia primary.

Despite an impressive showing, Buchanan's campaign never attracted serious opposition to President Bush in most contests. Most of Buchanan's "victories" were larger-than-expected showings that were still considered landslide Bush wins by most of the media. Still, the fact that Buchanan received more than two million votes nationwide prognosticated trouble for Bush in the general election.

Candidates

Nominee

Candidate			Most recent office	Home State	Campaign Withdrawal date	Popular vote	Contests won	Running mate
George H. W. Bush			President of the United States (1989–1993)	Texas	(Campaign) Secured nomination: May 5, 1992	9,199,463 (72.84%)	51	Dan Quayle

Other Candidates

Candidate			Most recent office	Home State	Campaign Withdrawal date	Popular vote	Contests won
Pat Buchanan			White House Communications Director (1985–1987)	Virginia	(Campaign)	2,899,488 (22.96%)	N/A
David Duke			Member of the Louisiana House of Representatives (1989–1992)	Louisiana	(Campaign)	119,115 (0.94%)	N/A
Pat Paulsen			Comedian	California		10,984 (0.09%)	N/A
Harold Stassen			Director of the United States Foreign Operations Administration (1953–1955)	Minnesota		8,099 (0.06%)	N/A
Jack Fellure			Former Engineer and Perennial Candidate	West Virginia		6,296 (0.05%)	N/A

Campaign finance

Declined

• Former Governor Pete du Pont of Delaware

Results

Nationwide

Popular vote result:

• George H. W. Bush (inc.) - 9,199,463 (72.84%)
• Pat Buchanan - 2,899,488 (22.96%)
• Unpledged delegates - 287,383 (2.28%)
• David Duke - 119,115 (0.94%)
• Ross Perot - 56,136 (0.44%)
• Pat Paulsen - 10,984 (0.09%)
• Maurice Horton - 9,637 (0.08%)
• Harold Stassen - 8,099 (0.06%)
• Jack Fellure - 6,296 (0.05%)

Endorsements

Pat Buchanan

• Brendan Eich, computer programmer and co-founder/CEO of Mozilla

See also

• 1992 Democratic Party presidential primaries
• George H. W. Bush 1992 presidential campaign
• Supermarket scanner moment
• David Duke 1992 presidential campaign

Notes

1. Including general election
2. ^ All votes for uncommitted delegates
3. All votes for David Duke
4. Nearly all of this vote was for Ross Perot as a write-in candidate.
5. All votes for Ross Perot

References

1. "Race for the nomination". Chicago Tribune. 11 March 1992. Archived from the original on 21 May 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
2. Dowd, Maureen (16 January 1992). "THE 1992 CAMPAIGN: REPUBLICANS; Immersing Himself in Nitty-Gritty, Bush Barnstorms New Hampshire". The New York Times.
3. NG Archived 2012-09-28 at the Wayback Machine
4. "Past New Hampshire Primary Election Results". Archived from the original on 2011-07-15. Retrieved 2010-02-22.
5. "STASSEN, HAROLD E." January 1987.
6. "BUCHANAN, PATRICK J." January 1987.
7. "DUKE, DAVID E." January 1987.
8. "FELLURE, LOWELL JACKSON". January 1987.
9. Quayle, Dan (1994). Standing Firm (1st ed.). HarperCollins Publishers. pp. 299–300. ISBN 0-06-017758-6.
10. "Clipped from Chicago Tribune". Chicago Tribune. 11 March 1992. p. 14.
11. "1992 Presidential Primary Calendar".
12. "Election calendar at a glance". The Times Leader. 14 February 1992. Archived from the original on 21 May 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
13. "THE 1992 CAMPAIGN: Iowa; HARKIN DOMINATES STATE'S CAUCUSES". The New York Times. 11 February 1992. Archived from the original on 16 January 2018 – via Newspapers.com.
14. "1992 New Hampshire Republican primary results". Archived from the original on 2017-12-13.
15. "1992 South Dakota Republican primary results". Archived from the original on 2019-05-14.
16. "Primary notes Delegate numbers set for parties". Argus-Leader. 26 February 1992. p. 3. Archived from the original on 21 May 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
17. ^ "Republican primaries March 3". Hartford Courant. 5 March 1992. p. 6. Archived from the original on 21 May 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
18. "1992 Georgia Republican primary full results".
19. "South Carolina Republican delegate count". Arizona Republic. 8 March 1992. p. 6. Archived from the original on 21 May 2019 – via Newspapers.com.
20. "1992 South Carolina Republican primary full results".
21. Our Campaigns - US President - R Primaries Race - Feb 01, 1992
22. Our Campaigns - US President - R Primaries Race - Feb 01, 1992
23. "Filter By Donors: Brendan Eich". OpenSecrets. Retrieved 4 October 2024.
24. Mozilla CEO donated to rightwing candidates, records show

v t e George H. W. Bush
41st President of the United States (1989–1993) 43rd Vice President of the United States (1981–1989) Director of Central Intelligence (1976–1977) UN Ambassador (1971–1973) U.S. Representative for TX–7 (1967–1971)
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Life	Presidential Library Bush School of Government and Public Service Walker's Point Estate Post-presidency Death and state funeral
Speeches	Joint session of Congress (1989) State of the Union addresses 1990 1991 1992 Chicken Kiev
Elections	U.S. Senate 1964 1970 U.S. House 1966 1968 Vice Presidential 1980 campaign selection convention election transition 1984 campaign convention election Presidential 1980 campaign primaries 1988 campaign primaries running mate selection convention "a thousand points of light" "Read my lips: no new taxes" debates election 1992 campaign primaries convention debates election Clinton transition
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• 1992 United States Republican presidential primaries
• George H. W. Bush
• Pat Buchanan
• David Duke
• Ross Perot