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This article is about the John Kerry presidential campaign. According to delegate counts and major polls as of March 2004, United States Senator John Kerry, a Democrat from Massachusetts, is the front-runner for the Democratic nomination in the United States presidential election.

As the presumptive nominee, he is set to face Republican incumbent President George W. Bush on November 2, 2004.

Primary elections

In 2003, Kerry declared his candidacy for the U.S. Democratic Party presidential nomination. Initially the front-runner, he lost the lead to upstart former Vermont Governor Howard Dean. However, as the actual primary season grew closer, Kerry regained his momentum while Dean's support faltered in the wake of his devastating third-place finish in the Iowa caucus.

John Kerry won the Iowa caucus over Senator John Edwards of North Carolina on January 19,2004 by a narrow margin, and then won the primary in New Hampshire by a wide margin on January 27.

On February 3, five states held primaries and two held caucuses. Kerry won both caucuses and three of the primaries, with a margin of victory of no less than 16% in any of those five states. Kerry came in second to Edwards by 15% in Edward's native South Carolina. Kerry came in third in Oklahoma with 27% while Edwards and General Wesley Clark each received 30% of the votes.

On February 7, Kerry continued his winning streak with victories in caucuses in Michigan (52% of the vote, ahead of Dean with 17%) and Washington (48% ahead of Dean with 30%). On February 8 Kerry won the Maine caucuses with about half of the vote, leading Howard Dean who had about a quarter of the vote.

On February 10, Kerry also won primaries in Virginia (by a 25% margin over Edwards) and Tennessee (by a 15% margin over Edwards), leaving him with 12 wins out of 14 state primary or caucus contests. Clark exited the race after the first two Southern primaries (following Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Congressman Dick Gephardt of Missouri out the door), which some observers thought might strengthen the hand of the race's other Southern son, John Edwards. Kerry made his victory speech that evening at George Mason University.

On February 14, Kerry won both the Nevada and District of Columbia caucuses—garnering an overwhelming 63% of the vote in Nevada, with nearest competitor Dean pulling in less than a third of that (17%)—and Edwards garnering 10%. In D.C., Kerry earned 47%, more than doubling his nearest competitor, the Reverend Al Sharpton of New York, who had 20%.

On February 17, Kerry narrowly won the Wisconsin primary, with 39% of the vote, ahead of Edwards with 35%. Given Kerry's strength in earlier primaries and the apparent inevitability of his nomination, this was considered a poorer-than-expected result. The Wisconsin vote left Kerry with 632 of the delegates needed to win the Democratic nomination.

On February 24, Kerry won the Utah primary and the caucuses in Idaho and Hawaii. Kerry defeated Edwards by a margin of 55% to 30% in Utah and 54% to 22% in Idaho. Kerry defeated Congressman Dennis Kucinich by a 46% to 30% margin in Hawaii.

On March 2, "Super Tuesday," Kerry won primaries in California, Connecticut, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, and Rhode Island and caucuses in Minnesota, effectively clinching the Democratic Presidential nomination. He lost Vermont to native son Dean. With just one win (his native South Carolina), Kerry's remaining serious competitor, Edwards, leaked his intentions to leave the race.

Kerry's delegate total now stands at 1557; he has won a total of 27 of 30 nominating contests.

Endorsements

John Kerry's candidacy has been endorsed by former Democratic primary candidates Congressman Dick Gephardt and former four-star General Wesley Clark. He also received the endorsement of the AFL-CIO (the major U.S. labor organization), after Gephardt and Dean (who had each previously won endorsements from individual member unions) dropped out.

Vice-presidential selection

Kerry's campaign began the process of searching for a vice-presidential nominee, sometimes called the "veepstakes," shortly after Kerry's Super Tuesday victories. Kerry named Jim Johnson, former advisor to Vice President Walter Mondale, as the head of a vice-presidential search process.

One of the major criteria likely to be a factor in selecting a vice-presidential candidate is the ability to deliver an traditionally Republican or a "battleground state" in the November election. Every successful Democratic presidential campaign since 1960 has included a southern politican who helped deliver one or more southern states for the Democrats. Some of the candidates mentioned as potential picks for this reason include:

• Gov. Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania
• Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico. Richardson, a Hispanic, was widely regarded as a leading contender for the vice-presidential slot before he denied interest during a 7 March 2004 appearance on Meet the Press.
• Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana
• Gov. Mark Warner of Virginia
• Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida
• Sen. Bob Graham of Florida
• Sen. John Breaux of Louisiana
• Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana
• Rep. Harold Ford of Tennessee
• Gov. Tom Vilsack of Iowa
• Gov. Janet Napolitano of Arizona

As the current economic situation in the United States may be a major issue in the campaign, Kerry may opt for a vice-presidential candidate who brings economic experience to the ticket, including possibly;

• Robert Rubin, former Treasury Secretary

Other high-profile Democrats, including former challengers for the Democratic nomination:

• John Edwards, North Carolina senator and the last major rival to Kerry during the primary season. Political pundits had only speculated for months that Edwards's campaign was simply an "audition for vice-president." Edwards's campaign refused to actively criticize fellow Democratic challengers, including Kerry, and Edwards' concession speech upon with drawing from the race spoke highly of Kerry. Edwards, however, is widely viewed as being unable to deliver even his home state of North Carolina to the Democratic column.
• Gen. Wesley Clark (ret.)
• Former Gov. Howard Dean of Vermont
• Rep. Richard Gephardt of Missouri
• Bill Clinton, former U.S. President
• Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York

Some moderate or maverick Republicans are occasionally mentioned, including:

• Sen. John McCain of Arizona
• Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania

Issue stances

Kerry has refused, on 23 separate occasions, to respond to Project Vote Smart's National Political Awareness Test.

Some of Kerry's positions, ideas and experiences with national issues are as follows:

National service

Kerry supports supplementing national service in nearly all aspects of American life, including requiring community service for high school students to graduate, a "Summer of Service" for teenagers (essentially community service during summer breaks from school, with a U.S. $500 grant for college), increasing the Peace Corps to 25,000 members, requiring universities that receive Federal funding to offer a ROTC, and providing more funding for ROTC scholarships.

Economy

Kerry supports increasing the minimum wage and indexing it to inflation. Kerry believes in "equal pay for equal work." Kerry supported NAFTA and the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Balanced Budget Act.

Education

Kerry has proposed a "College Opportunity Tax Credit".

Law & Justice

As a first assistant district attorney, Kerry personally prosecuted armed robbers, rapists, and mob bosses. He is in favor of putting resources in the community, backing the Community Oriented Policing System Act (COPS), and creating laws that lead to criminals being arrested and convicted. Kerry has advocated expanding the COPS program to place 100,000 police officers in community policing assignments. Kerry supports the Police Corps program. In the Senate, Kerry has advocated for laws against drug dealers and money laundering.

Death penalty

Kerry has long stated his opposition to the death penalty, but has recently stated that he would support it in the case of convicted terrorists. He had previously opposed the death penalty for terrorists on the grounds that it would make it difficult to extradite suspects to the United States to stand trial. (Many nations refuse extradition requests, on humanitarian grounds, if the suspect faces execution.)

Illegal drugs

Kerry's proposals to deal with illegal drugs include focusing on keeping drugs out of the country as well as reducing demand for illegal drugs. Kerry supports aggressively targeting traffickers and dealers. Kerry supports funding drug prevention and treatment programs.

Gun control

Kerry is a gun owner and hunter. Kerry believes that law-abiding American adults have the right to own guns, though he is in favor of certain restrictions.

Social security

Kerry is against budget cuts that cause cutbacks in Social Security benefits.

Abortion

Kerry affiliates himself with "pro-choice" women's organizations. Kerry is against the criminalization of a "woman's right to choose." In the Senate, Kerry voted against bans on abortions conducted on military bases and military installations overseas, as well as against the ban on partial-birth abortion.

Gay rights

Kerry is in favor of civil rights for gay and lesbian Americans. John Kerry is an original cosponsor of the Hate Crimes Prevention bill and supports passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. He introduced a very early bill (1985) into the Senate to statutorily forbid sexual-orientation-based discrimination. Kerry cosponsored the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency Act (CARE) and also sponsored the Vaccines for the New Millennium Act.

Affirmative Action

Kerry states that he supports affirmative action and diversity programs, a claim supported by his Senate voting record. He has, however, expressed reservations about affirmative action in the past, most notably in a 1992 speech in which he reportedly called the practice "inherently limited and divisive," explaining that it "has kept America thinking in racial terms."

Security & Foreign policy

Kerry voted in support the Senate resolution authorizing the President to use force against Saddam Hussein if he failed to surrender his weapons of mass destruction and related tools for constructing and distributing them. Kerry, in October 2002, declared Iraq was "capable of quickly producing weaponizing" biological components that could be delivered against "the United States". This was in contrast to the skepticism of the National Intelligence Estimate of Iraq's capability, which Kerry had access to.

After the President launched the U.S. expedition against Iraq, Kerry reconsidered his position and declared the Administration's Iraq policy reckless at best and baseless at worst. He has since been outspoken against the war itself and the Bush Administration's stewardship of occupied Iraq, attacking what he calls poor planning and poor diplomacy on Bush's part, but supports remaining in Iraq until the task of reconstruction and reconciliation is complete.

Kerry has been criticized by Howard Dean for his position on the war. Kerry voted for the resolution in the Senate that authorized President George W. Bush to go to war; however, he has since become a fierce critic of the war effort,

Kerry advocates involving NATO, troops from other countries and the United Nations in U.S.-led efforts to achieve the goals of stable and democratic world. According to the Harvard Crimson, Kerry said in 1970 that the United Nations should have approval over most of our foreign military operations. "I'm an internationalist. I'd like to see our troops dispersed through the world only at the directive of the United Nations." Kerry also said (1970) he would like to "to almost eliminate CIA activity. The CIA is fighting its own war in Laos and nobody seems to care."

Kerry sponsored the Code of Conduct of Arms Transfers Act, which would prohibit U.S. military assistance and arms transfers to undemocratic nations, human rights violators or armed aggressors.

Kerry cosponsored an amendment to the Department of Defense Authorization Bill that allows the military to transport families of soldiers wounded while on active duty.

Kerry detailed proposals for homeland security efforts include enlisting the National Guard and AmeriCorps, creating a community defense service, ensuring first defenders and first responders are equipped and ready, improving information technology, reforming domestic intelligence, implementing public health initiatives and improving infrastructure security.

Kerry and fellow Vietnam-era Navy veteran Senator John McCain (R-AZ) have worked together in the 1990s to investigate the possibility that there were still POWs in Vietnam.

Kerry believes that homosexual couples should be granted rights, supporting same-sex civil unions (though not same-sex marriage). Kerry supported legislation to provide domestic partners of federal employees the benefits available to spouses of federal employees. Kerry voted against the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in the Senate in 1996. Kerry did say, on an interview with National Public Radio, that he opposes the term "gay marriage". He claims that "marriage" should only be between a man and a woman, and should only be performed in a religious setting. He disagrees with the use of the term "marriage" to refer to any civil ceremony, heterosexual or homosexual.

Kerry opposes the "don't ask, don't tell" policy and is in favor of lifting the ban on gays in the military.

Since 1995, Human Rights Campaign, a gay-rights advocacy group, has given Kerry a 100 percent rating.

Environment

Kerry advocates removal of toxins from communities, bolstering the Superfund cleanup program, and reducing sprawl and traffic congestion.

Proposals for "Green and Clean Communities" include a Toxics Task Force at the EPA, fighting air pollution, water pollution and fighting other environmental hazards. Kerry has proposed a "Conservation Covenant." As part of the covenant, Kerry will extend the Endangered Species Act for the benefits of wildlife and habitat protection to public and private lands and reinvest public-land royalties back into land protection.

Kerry wants to participate in the development of an international climate change strategy to address global warming.

In 1998, the League of Conservation Voters gave Kerry an award for having one of the best environmental voting records in the Senate over the previous five years.

Immigration

Kerry supports cutting the Bureau for Citizenship and Immigration Services' application pending backlog and reducing the lag for the naturalization process. Kerry endorses benefits to legal immigrants. Kerry supports the "Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors" (DREAM) Act for illegal immigrants.

Kerry supports the proposal of legalizing the status of undocumented immigrants, pending a certain amount of working time in the US and passing a background check. Kerry has proposed border enforcement reformation and increases of border enforcement funding.

Views of Kerry

The official Kerry for President website declares:

"John has a bold, new vision for America. An America safe from foreign threats and greedy special interests. John has the experience and plans to lead America to better jobs, quality health care, energy that is clean, renewable, and independent, and greater opportunities for our children."

The Kansas City Star endorsed Kerry before the Missouri primary and wrote of him:

"Kerry has the right combination of intelligence, experience and thoughtful, progressive views for the job. His military record—he received both a Bronze Star and a Silver Star for acts of bravery in Vietnam—as well as his defense and foreign policy expertise clearly make him the best qualified Democrat to lead the nation in the continuing fight against our adversaries abroad...Kerry has decades of public service that are available for scrutiny and review. It is an excellent record, one that contains abundant evidence of the senator's commitment to the country and its better impulses."

The Chattanooga Times Free Press endorsed Kerry before the Tennessee Democratic primary and editorialized:

"If Mr. Kerry is, by contrast , a 'liberal,' at least his policies make sense and would benefit all Americans. He has supported the sort of responsible domestic policies that boost education, support job creation and improve health care for all. With his personal war experience and deep background in foreign policy, he would exercise sound diplomacy in foreign affairs."

The Washington Post had this editorial comment on Kerry's approaching front-runner status:

"JOHN KERRY has become the favorite for the Democratic presidential nomination without a detailed or clarifying debate on many issues. ... Now, with the nomination seemingly within his reach, the Massachusetts senator must begin to more fully explain where he stands on the major challenges facing the country.

"That task is particularly important for Mr. Kerry because of his fuzziness on issues ranging from Iraq to gay marriage. ... But even a more independent assessment of Mr. Kerry can lead to puzzlement. He says he opposes gay marriage, yet voted against the federal Defense of Marriage act. He voted for the North American Free Trade agreement yet now talks in protectionist terms."

In an appearance in Milwaukee, fellow candidate and political rival Howard Dean stated, "When you act like Senator Kerry does, he appears to be more like George Bush than he does like a Democrat."

Critics of Kerry cite Associated Press reports that Kerry made efforts to keep loopholes for special interests. One loophole allowed American International Group to profit from liability insurance coverage it provided for the "Big Dig" project in Boston. AIG later provided the funds for Kerry's trip to Vermont and donated $30,000 (or more) to a group used to set up Kerry's presidential campaign (Company executives also donated $18,000 to his campaigns). Charles Lewis, head of the Center for Public Integrity, stated that "the idea that Kerry has not helped or benefited from a specific special interest, which he has said, is utterly absurd." Kerry has denied any connection between his assistance to AIG and its contributions to his campaign.

Other politicians, such as Republican opponents and conservative foes, describe Kerry as liberal and out-of-touch with their perception of the mainstream of American society. Commentator Pat Buchanan wrote:

"... a Massachusetts liberal who voted against the Defense of Marriage Act, backs civil unions for homosexuals, voted to defend the infanticide known as partial-birth abortion and wants to raise the federal income taxes that George Bush lowered."

Kerry is, unquestionably, on the left end of the American political spectrum, and can be described as a liberal, but perhaps more specifically as a free-market fiscal moderate and social-values libertarian. The Americans for Democratic Action, a prominent liberal organization, rates Kerry's voting record better than that of Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA), causing Republican National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie to joke, "Who would have guessed it? Ted Kennedy is the conservative senator from Massachusetts." (Kerry gets a 93 percent from the ADA, Kennedy an 88 percent.)