Presidency of Ronald Reagan: Difference between revisions

{{Main|Ronald Reagan 1980 presidential campaign|1980 United States presidential election}}

{{Further|1980 United States elections|1980 Republican Party presidential primaries|1980 Republican National Convention}}

 

Reagan, who had served as [[Governor of California]] from 1967 to 1975, narrowly lost the [[1976 Republican Party presidential primaries|1976 Republican presidential primaries]] to incumbent President [[Gerald Ford]]. With the defeat of Ford by Democrat [[Jimmy Carter]] in the [[1976 United States presidential election|1976 election]], Reagan immediately became the front-runner for the 1980 Republican presidential nomination.{{sfn|Weisberg|2016|pp=56–57}} A darling of the conservative movement, Reagan faced more moderate Republicans such as [[George H. W. Bush]], [[Howard Baker]], and [[Bob Dole]] in the [[1980 Republican Party presidential primaries|1980 Republican presidential primaries]]. After Bush won the Iowa caucuses, he became Reagan's primary challenger, but Reagan won the New Hampshire primary and most of the following primaries, gaining an insurmountable delegate lead by the end of March 1980. Ford was Reagan's first choice for his running mate, but Reagan backed away from the idea out of the fear of a "copresidency" in which Ford would exercise an unusual degree of power. Reagan instead chose Bush, and the Reagan-Bush ticket was nominated at the [[1980 Republican National Convention]]. Meanwhile, Carter won the Democratic nomination, defeating a primary challenge by Senator [[Ted Kennedy]]. Polls taken after the party conventions showed a tied race between Reagan and Carter, while independent candidate [[John B. Anderson]] had the support of many moderates.{{sfn|Weisberg|2016|pp=61–63}}