1992 Republican Party presidential primaries

1992 Republican Party presidential primaries

← 1988 February 18 to June 9, 1992 1996 →

2,209 delegates to the Republican National Convention
1,105 delegate 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. These elections were designed to select the 2,277 delegates to send to the national convention in Houston, Texas from August 17 to August 20, 1992, who selected the Republican Party's nominee for president in the 1992 United States presidential election, incumbent president George H. W. Bush. The delegates also approved the party platform and vice-presidential nominee. Bush went on to lose the general election to the Democratic nominee, Governor Bill Clinton.

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 all 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 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
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

Candidate Campaign committee
Raised Total contrib. Ind. contrib. Pres. pub. funds Spent
George H. W. Bush $104,974,415.00 $31,802,276.00 $31,711,102.00 $65,898,513.00 $107,637,852.00
Pat Buchanan $14,933,082.00 $7,232,943.00 $7,206,793.00 $5,351,770.00 $14,591,679.00
David Duke $372,146.00 $221,854.00 $221,945.00 $0.00 $457,449.00
Jack Fellure $46,748.00 $1,260.00 $1,425.00 $0.00 $47,559.00

Declined

Results

Date
(daily totals)
Total pledged
delegates
Contest Delegates won and popular vote Total
George Bush Pat Buchanan Others
February 10 0 Iowa caucus Cancelled.
February 18 23 New Hampshire primary 14
92,271 (53.2%)
9
65,106 (37.5%)

3,779 (2.3%)
February 19 22 South Dakota primary 14
30,964 (69.3%)
5
13,707 (30.68%)
March 3
(131)
37 Colorado primary 26
132,049 (68.2%)
11
58,730 (30.3%)

2,957 (1.53%)
42 Maryland primary 42
168,898 (69.9%)

72,701 (30.1%)
52 Georgia primary 52
291,905 (64.3%)

162,085 (35.7%)
March 7 36 South Carolina primary 36
99,558 (66.9%)

38,247 (25.7%)

11,035 (7.41%)
March 10
(Super Tuesday)
(441)
99 Florida primary 67
607,522 (68.1%)
32
285,074 (31.9%)
41 Louisiana primary 25
83,747 (62.0%)
11
36,526 (27.0%)
5
14,841
40 Massachusetts primary 28
176,868 (65.6%)
12
74,797 (27.7%)

24,182
34 Mississippi primary 25
111,794 (72.3%)
6
25,891 (16.7%)
4
17,023 (10.6%)
38 Oklahoma primary 27
151,612 (69.6%)
11
57,933 (26.6%)

8,176 (2.6%)
16 Rhode Island primary 11
9,853 (63.0%)
5
4,967 (31.8%)

816 (4.9%)
49 Tennessee primary 38
178,216 (72.5%)
11
54,585 (22.2%)

12,849 (5.2%)
124 Texas primary 92
556,280 (69.8%)
32
190,572 (23.9%)

50,294 (6.0%)
March 17
(162)
88 Illinois primary 68
556,280 (76.4%)
20
186,915 (22.5%)

9,637 (1.2%)
74 Michigan primary 54
301,948 (67.2%)
20
112,122 (25.0%)

35,063 (7.7%)
March 24 38 Connecticut primary 29
66,356 (66.7%)
9
21,815 (22.0%)

11,475 (11.4%)
April 5 20 Puerto Rico primary 20
260,200

1,031

2,104
April 7
(205)
31 Kansas primary 21
132,131 (62.0%)
5
32,494 (14.8%)

49,571 (20.8%)
34 Minnesota primary 25
84,841 (63.9%)
9
32,094 (24.2%)

15,821 (8.8%)
103 New York [?] 103
37 Wisconsin primary 30
364,507 (75.6%)
7
78,516 (16.3%)

39,225 (5.3%)
April 28 92 Pennsylvania primary 71
774,865 (76.7%)
21
233,912 (23.2%)
May 5
(144)
13 District of Columbia primary 11
4,265 (81.5%)
2
970 (18.5%)
20 Delaware caucus 20
52 Indiana primary 42
374,666 (80.1%)
10
92,949 (19.9%)
59 North Carolina primary 46
200,387 (70.7%)
13
55,420 (19.5%)

27,764 (9.8%)
May 10 20 Montana primary 14
65,176 (71.6%)
2
10,701 (11.8%)
3
15,098 (16.6%)
May 12
(46)
27 Nebraska primary 23
156,346 (81.4%)
4
25,847 (13.5%)

9,905 (1.5%)
19 West Virginia primary 16
99,994 (80.5%)
3
18,067 (14.6%)

6,096 (4.9%)
May 19
(62)
25 Oregon primary 17
203,957
5
57,730
3
42,472
37 Washington primary 25
86,839 (67.0%)
4
13,273 (10.2%)
8
29,543 (20.8%)
May 26
(92)
31 Arkansas primary 27
45,590 (83.1%)
4
6,551 (11.9%)

2,742 (5.0%)
23 Idaho primary 15
73,297 (63.5%)
3
15,167 (13.1%)
5
27,038 (23.4%)
38 Kentucky primary 28
75,371 (74.5%)
10
25,748 (25.5%)
June 2
(439)
41 Alabama primary 33
122,703 (74.3%)

12,588 (7.6%)
8
29,830 (18.1%)
203 California primary 149
1,587,369 (73.6%)
54
568,892 (26.4%)
63 New Jersey primary 53
240,535 (77.5%)
10
46,432 (15.0%)

(7.5%)
27 New Mexico primary 19
55,522 (63.8%)

7,871 (9.1%)
8
23,574 (27.1%)
20 North Dakota primary 17
39,863 (83.4%)
3
7,945 (16.6%)
85 Ohio primary 71
716,766
14
143,687
Total 1,973 1,544
9,199,463 (72.8%)
367
2,899,488 (23.0%)
62
497,650 (4.2%)
12,596,601

Nationwide

Popular vote result:

See also


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