2004 Republican Party presidential primaries
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
From January 19 to June 8, 2004, voters of the Republican Party chose its nominee for president in the 2004 United States presidential election. Incumbent President George W. Bush was again selected as the nominee through a series of primary elections and caucuses culminating in the 2004 Republican National Convention held from August 30 to September 2, 2004, in New York City.
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January 19 to June 8, 2004
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2,509 delegates (1,736 pledged and 773 unpledged) to the Republican National Convention 1,255 (majority) votes needed to win | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Republican presidential primary, 2004
George W. Bush No votes/information available | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Primary race overview
Incumbent President George W. Bush announced in mid-2003 that he would campaign for re-election; he faced no major challengers. He then went on, throughout early 2004, to win every nomination contest, including a sweep of Super Tuesday, beating back the vacuum of challengers and maintaining the recent tradition of an easy primary for incumbent Presidents (the last time an incumbent was seriously challenged in a presidential primary contest was when Senator Ted Kennedy challenged Jimmy Carter for the Democratic nomination in 1980).
Bush won every state with comfortable margins: his worst performance was in New Hampshire, where he received 79.8% of the vote. The only human challenger to receive over 5% of the vote in any state was Bill Wyatt from California, who received 10% of the vote in Oklahoma in a minor upset. "Uncommitted" also received over 5% of the vote in Massachusetts (8.7%), Rhode Island (12.4%) and Texas (7.5%).
Bush managed to raise US$130 million in 2003 alone, and expected to set a national primary fund-raising record of $200 million by the time of the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York City.
Several states and territories canceled their respective Republican primaries altogether, citing Bush being the only candidate to qualify on their respective ballot, including Connecticut,[5] Florida,[6] Mississippi,[7] New York,[8] Puerto Rico,[9] and South Dakota.[10]
Senator Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, an opponent of the war in Iraq, Bush's tax cuts, drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and much of Bush's social agenda, considered challenging Bush in the New Hampshire primary in the fall of 2003. He decided not to run after the capture of Saddam Hussein in December 2003.[11] He would later change his party affiliation to Democratic and run in that party's 2016 presidential primaries.[12][13]
As of the 2024 presidential election, Bush is the last incumbent president, Democrat or Republican, to win all the delegates going into the national convention.
Candidates
Nominee
| Candidate | Most recent office | Home state | Campaign Withdrawal date |
Popular
vote |
Contests won | Running mate | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| George W. Bush | |
President of the United States (2001–2009) |
|
 (Campaign • Positions) Secured nomination: March 10, 2004 |
7,853,863 (98.01%) |
49 | Dick Cheney |  | |
Challengers
On the ballot in two or more primaries
- William Tsangares[14] ran for president under the pseudonym "Bill Wyatt." The then-43-year-old T-shirt maker left the Democratic Party to become a Republican after Democrats voted for the war in Iraq, an action he saw as a betrayal. Tsangares traveled 12,000 miles and spent an estimated $20,000 on his presidential campaign. He managed to get on the ballot in New Hampshire, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Louisiana, and even the Democratic Primary ballot in Arizona. He finished tenth in the New Hampshire primary with 0.23% of the vote (153 votes), placed second in Missouri, where he received 1,268 votes (1.03%). However, a minor upset occurred on Mini-Tuesday when Tsangares won just over 10% of the vote in Oklahoma and 4% in Louisiana. He also received 233 votes (0.10%) in the Arizona Democratic primary.
- Blake Ashby, a Republican entrepreneur frustrated with the explosion of debt under President Bush, ran as a protest candidate in the Republican primaries. On the ballot in New Hampshire and Missouri, he spent approximately $20,000 on his campaign, visiting New Hampshire and campaigning in his home state of Missouri and participated in the C-SPAN Minor Candidates Forum [15] He finished seventh in New Hampshire with 264 votes [16] and third in Missouri with 981 votes.
| Candidate | home state | total votes | % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Uncommitted | – | 91,926 | 1.1% |
| (others) | various | 49,281 | 0.8% |
| Bill Wyatt | California | 10,847 | 0% |
| Blake Ashby | Missouri | 1.145 | 0% |
On the ballot in one primary
All but one of the following were on the ballot only in the state of New Hampshire.
Actor Tom Laughlin of California
Declined to be candidates
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| Candidate | Home state | total votes | % |
|---|---|---|---|
| Richard Bosa | New Hampshire | 841 | 1.2% |
| John Buchanan | Georgia | 836 | 1.2% |
| John Rigazio | New Hampshire | 803 | 1.2% |
| Robert Haines | New Hampshire | 579 | 0.9% |
| Michael Callis | New Hampshire | 388 | 0.6% |
| Millie Howard | Ohio | 239 | 0.4% |
| Tom Laughlin | California | 154 | 0.2% |
| Jim Taylor | 124 | 0.2% | |
| Mark "Dick" Harnes | 87 | 0.1% | |
| Cornelius E. O'Connor, | 77 | 0.1% | |
| George Gostigian, | 52 | 0.1% | |
| Jack Fellure | West Virginia | 14[17] | 0 |
Results
There were 2,509 total delegates to the 2004 Republican National Convention, of which 650 were so-called "superdelegates" who were not bound by any particular state's primary or caucus votes and could change their votes at any time. A candidate needs 1,255 delegates to become the nominee. Except for the Northern Mariana Islands and Midway Atoll, all states, territories, and other inhabited areas of the United States offer delegates to the 2004 Republican National Convention.
Contested primaries
For brevity, states that did not hold a contest or had Bush as the only option on the ballot are omitted. Only candidates who placed third or better in a primary are included.
| Legend: | 1st place (popular vote) |
2nd place (popular vote) |
3rd place (popular vote) |
Candidate has withdrawn |
Candidate unable to appear on ballot |
|---|
| Date | Pledged delegates | Contest | George W. Bush |
BW Bill Wyatt |
.jpg) Jack Fellure |
 Other |
 Uncommitted |
Total votes cast |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 27 | 29 | New Hampshire | 79.8% 29 delegates 53,962 votes |
0.2% 153 votes |
Not on ballot | 20.0% 13,718 votes[b] |
Not on ballot | 67,833 votes |
| February 3 Mini-Tuesday |
57 | Missouri | 95.1% 57 delegates 117,007 votes |
1.0% 1,268 votes |
Not on ballot | 0.8% 981 votes[c] |
3.1% 3,830 votes |
123,086 votes |
| 26 | North Dakota | 99.1% 26 delegates 2,002 votes |
Not on ballot | 0.7% 14 votes |
0.2% 4 votes[d] |
Not on ballot | 2,020 votes | |
| 41 | Oklahoma | 90.0% 41 delegates 59,577 votes |
10.0% 6,635 votes |
Not on ballot | 66,198 votes | |||
| February 10 | 52 | Tennessee | 95.4% 52 delegates 94,557 votes |
Not on ballot | 4.6% 4,504 votes |
99,061 votes | ||
| February 17 | 37 | Wisconsin | 99.2% 37 delegates 158,677 votes |
Not on ballot | 0.8% 1,207 votes |
159,884 votes | ||
| March 2 Super Tuesday |
41 | Massachusetts | 90.6% 41 delegates 62,773 votes |
Not on ballot | 0.7% 455 votes[e] |
8.7% 6,050 votes |
69,278 votes | |
| 18 | Rhode Island | 84.9% 18 delegates 2,152 votes |
Not on ballot | 2.7% 69 votes[f] |
12.4% 314 votes |
2,535 votes | ||
| March 9 | 45 | Louisiana | 96.1% 45 delegates 69,205 votes |
3.9% 2,805 votes |
Not on ballot | 72,010 votes | ||
| 135 | Texas | 92.5% 135 delegates 635,948 votes |
Not on ballot | 7.5% 51,667 votes |
2,535 votes | |||
| March 16 | 60 | Illinois | 100% 60 delegates 583,575 votes |
Not on ballot | Not on ballot | 583,575 votes | ||
| May 18 | 35 | Arkansas | 97.1% 35 delegates 37,234 votes |
Not on ballot | 2.9% 1,129 votes |
38,363 votes | ||
| 43 | Kentucky | 92.5% 43 delegates 108,603 votes |
Not on ballot | 7.5% 8,776 votes |
117,379 votes | |||
| 28 | Oregon | 94.9% 28 delegates 293,806 votes |
Not on ballot | 5.1% 15,700 votes |
309,506 votes | |||
| May 25 | 26 | Idaho | 89.5% 26 delegates 110,800 votes |
Not on ballot | 10.5% 12,993 votes |
123,793 votes | ||
| June 1 | 45 | Alabama | 92.8% 45 delegates 187,038 votes |
Not on ballot | 7.2% 14,449 votes |
201,487 votes | ||
| Totals votes from contested states | 718 | 16 contests | 95.3% 718 delegates 2,576,916 votes |
0.4% 10,861 votes |
0.000% 14 votes |
0.53% 15,227 votes |
5.2% 120,619 votes |
2,723,637 votes |
| Convention roll call | 100% 2,509 delegates |
0% | ||||||
Counties carried
 George W. Bush No votes/information available
|