https://www.britannica.com/topic/U-S-Election-of-2000-The-714077. [7], One sitting governor was defeated in the November 2000 general election. The reeling Bush forces then took off the gloves in South Carolina, employing surrogates to question war hero McCain’s commitment to conservative values and party principles. Instead, the moderate McCain rolled through New Hampshire on a bus dubbed the Straight Talk Express, charming journalists, selling campaign finance reform, and racking up a devastating 19-point victory. Find the latest news, photos and videos from the 2020 United States presidential election. The 2000 US election between George W Bush, left, and Al Gore ended in the Supreme Court Credit: AP Photo/Ed Reinke The 2000 US presidential election was one of … Gore eventually won the national popular vote by a margin of more than 500,000. Exit polls showed deep splits in the electorate. It is questions like these that the 2000 result rested on - and could again in a very close race. Technically, Congress remained in Republican hands, but in reality it was deadlocked, divided almost evenly between the parties. And it was local election officials, not some US-wide governing body, that was making the decisions. While this year’s polls do not suggest a race on a knife-edge, Donald Trump’s prediction that it too will end up contested in America’s top court has people looking back at 2000. Read headlines covering the presidential debates, results, and more. The U.S.’s tumultuous experiment with democracy over two centuries has produced a colourful record of conflict and decision, but the presidential election of 2000 will rank near the top of any list. With Democratic President Bill Clinton term-limited, Gore won his party's nomination by defeating Senator Bill Bradley in the Democratic primaries. In 2000, the Gore campaign demanded recounts in just a small number of Florida counties. Scammon, Richard M., Alice V. McGillivray, and Rhodes Cook. Bush delivered a competent and affable performance, exceeding expectations, while Gore repeatedly interrupted, demanded extra time, sighed audibly, and grimaced while Bush was talking. Keep an old standard or adopt a new one? In the last week of the campaign, he was thrown on the defensive when news of a 1976 arrest for drunk driving surfaced, when he appeared to deny that Social Security was a government program, and when left-leaning supporters of Green Party candidate Ralph Nader (see Biographies) began to return to the Democratic fold. Bob Wise, Democrat, was elected to a four-year term.[8]. Democrats also picked up a net of one seat in the House, but Republicans retained a overall narrow majority. 2000 United States House of Representatives elections, 2000 United States gubernatorial elections, "Statistics of the Presidential and Congressional Election of November 7, 2000", "San Diego Winner Puts Ethics Panel on Agenda", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=2000_United_States_elections&oldid=986654942, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 2 November 2020, at 05:35. The Times of India News App for Latest World News, Copyright © 2020 Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. All rights reserved. Republicans won the national popular vote for the House of Representatives by a margin of 0.5 points. So the cameras waited. One side will need to concede for the race to be put to bed. The U.S. Supreme Court (seven of nine members nominated by Republican presidents) surprised virtually all experts by stepping in and overturning both rulings. This time round, that is not a forgone conclusion. The 2000 United States elections were held on November 7, 2000.Republican Governor George W. Bush of Texas defeated Democratic Vice President Al Gore of Tennessee in the presidential election. In the gubernatorial elections, Democrats won a net gain of one seat. But he did not. It explains why Hillary Clinton, to much criticism, has cautioned today's Democratic nominee Joe Biden against conceding given the likelihood of legal challenges. Bush, however, appeared to run out of gas at the end. The 2000 US presidential election was one of the closest and most controversial in modern American history, with the result in the balance for weeks and ending in the Supreme Court. That meant that the relevant local boards were in charge of the vote checks. Democrats moved to disqualify hundreds of military ballots from overseas on technicalities even as they vowed that “all votes must be counted.”. If 2000 does get replayed in some form in 2020, then in all likelihood focus will fall on a handful of little-known election officials who suddenly have a large amount of power. Bush’s lead soon disappeared, and Gore surged 10 points ahead. Republicans retained control of both houses of Congress, giving the party unified control of Congress and the presidency for the first time since the 1954 elections. By signing up for this email, you are agreeing to news, offers, and information from Encyclopaedia Britannica. And with Mr Trump filling three seats on the nine-person Supreme Court during his first term, there is now a conservative majority of six justices to three. To log in and use all the features of Khan Academy, please enable JavaScript in your browser. What happens if the US election is contested. So when should that vote be counted? That helped produce a double-digit poll lead for Bush. George W. Bush (R) defeated Vice President Al Gore (D) in the election to replace term-limited President Bill Clinton (D) on November 7, 2000. Political scientists were unanimous that, given peace and prosperity, the incumbent vice president should win easily. When the networks called Florida for Mr Bush, Mr Gore telephoned his rival to concede. Khan Academy is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Gore, as Bill Clinton’s vice president for eight years, was the clear The result was, as one wag put it, a tie, a coin flip where the coin landed on its edge. This time round networks are expected to play it conservative, wary of causing chaos with calls. The 2000 US election between George W Bush, left, and Al Gore ended in the Supreme Court, An election worker sorts vote-by-mail ballots in Miami-Dade County, Florida, UAE scraps defence of 'honour' crimes and decriminalises alcohol in sweeping legal reforms, Ministers eat their words over Marcus Rashford's free school meals campaign, Joe Biden and the special relationship: What the election result means for the UK and Brexit, Strictly Come Dancing, Movie Week talking points: Ranvir Singh tops scoreboard on a night of surprises. Gore suffered, however, from a pedantic personal style and his association with Pres. Get exclusive access to content from our 1768 First Edition with your subscription. 1, pp. But, ultimately, that did not inevitably end the saga about the result. [5] Republicans lost two seats in the House, while Democrats gained 1 seat and 1 independent, Virgil Goode, was elected. And waited. The 2000 election was the fourth election in U.S. history in which the winner of the electoral votes did not carry the popular vote. In their final decision, seven justices declared the lack of uniform standards defining voter intent amounted to a denial of equal protection of the laws. He conceded - against the pleas of a few of his aides - announcing he had called Mr Bush and joking that this time he would not be taking it back. On the night, the cable news channels - which are in fierce competition for eyeballs and boosted brand perception at elections - called Florida for Mr Gore, putting victory in his grasp. Things were looking closer than expected. America Votes 24: A Handbook of Contemporary American Election Statistics, 2000. 83-100. The U.S.’s tumultuous experiment with democracy over two centuries has produced a colourful record of conflict and decision, but the presidential election of 2000 will rank near the top of any list. Bradley lost the New Hampshire primary by a narrow 52–48% margin and never again came close to winning a state. Next lesson. One of the idiosyncrasies of US elections is that rules are decided for the most part not at the national level but at the state or even the county level. How should they decide what was a vote? Updates? It was mired with controversy over the dispute of incompletely punched votes. For reprint rights: Times Syndication Service, US presidential election may produce Florida 2000 on steroids, Situation along LAC in eastern Ladakh 'remains tense': Gen Bipin Rawat, âObscenityâ row: Netizens support Poonam Pandey, question Milind Soman, Bihar elections: PM Modi praises Nitish Kumar for 'sushasan', takes dig at Lalu Yadav, Interview with Table Tennis Champion Harmeet Desai, Miss Diva Universe 2019 Vartika Singh at Hyatt Regency Lucknow, Shefali Sood and Varun Verma during Press Conference at Aloft New Delhi Aerocity, Kamala Harris reveals her love for indian food, Terms of Use and Grievance Redressal Policy. The GOP convention in Philadelphia was staged as a paean to ethnic diversity, a visual reminder of Bush’s outreach to minorities and his “compassionate conservatism” campaign theme. George W. Bush (see Biographies) were targets of spirited primary challenges from political mavericks. The hotly-contested battle for the presidency between George W. Bush and Al Gore was ultimately decided by the Supreme Court. Bill Clinton. But behind the scenes the Gore campaign in Florida was going ballistic. Omissions? In the 2000 election, once counting was over, Mr Bush had won Florida by just a few hundred votes. By the time the Bush campaign righted itself and ran out the clock, Bush’s once-substantial advantage over Gore in funding and polls was gone. The 2000 United States elections were held on November 7, 2000. The election of 2000. That stopped the recount and effectively decided the contest—35 days after election day. The new president prepared to enter office with the weakest mandate to govern of any administration in more than a century. Both sides replaced principle with expediency. Bush, by contrast, was widely viewed as personable and attractive, but Democrats successfully raised concerns: did he have the experience and intellectual heft to be president? U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona was a far more serious problem for Bush, whose tightly scripted message and regal campaigning satisfied party regulars but failed to excite less-partisan voters. Time magazine, exaggerating only slightly, dubbed it “the wildest election in history.” It produced the country’s fourth president who had lost the popular vote, and the first president who owed his victory directly to a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. The overall result was close because, aided by modern polling, both candidates had successfully presented a moderate platform that appealed to the vast American centre. There were countless critical choices to be made. The framing stuck throughout the court battle to come. The 2000 United States elections were held on November 7, 2000. Latest US elections 2020 news, comment and analysis from the Guardian, the world's leading liberal voice. Bush won virtually the entire heartland of the country, while Gore won the West Coast and most northeastern and upper Midwestern states. The state was returned to ‘too close to call’. He was dubbed a sore loser. Corrections? Democrats challenged Bush’s lead by starting recounts in several urban counties, claiming that inexpensive punch-card voting devices had failed to record intended Gore ballots. Or if the chad is not removed but there is a clear impression made by force on the paper, a ‘dimpled chad’? We urge you to turn off your ad blocker for The Telegraph website so that you can continue to access our quality content in the future. Bush defeated Senator John McCain in the Republican primaries to win his party's presidential nomination. Some of the major American cities that held their mayoral elections in 2000 included: Republicans briefly lost their Senate majority in January 2001 when the 107th Congress was seated, but they regained their majority that same month when Republican. Bush won 271 electoral votes to Gore’s 266 electoral votes. The Supreme Court justices eventually voted by 5 to 4 to stop the recount, with all five justices approving that move having been appointed by Republican presidents. How many votes should they count? Democrats picked up net of four seats. [3] Six senators were defeated in the November 2000 election. The Florida Supreme Court (all seven members nominated by Democratic governors) twice extended the recount process, saying that protecting the right to vote was more critical than observing a legislative-set timetable. Not quite. The Senate elections left both parties with control of fifty Senate seats. One of only 5 elections (1824, 1876, 1888, 2000, 2016) where the popular vote winner was defeated Issues of the Day: Impeachment, Presidential ethics, Good economy 1996 2004 >> The single defeated Democrat was Charles S. Robb of Virginia.[4]. The United States after 2000. As explained above, the issue became what counted as a vote. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Former U.S. senator Bill Bradley of New Jersey failed to wean away any of the liberal Democratic pillars backing the vice president—organized labour, minorities, and women activists. Practice: 1990s America. “What the networks giveth, the networks taketh away”, NBC’s anchor Tom Brokaw said famously live on air. Ansolabehere, Stephen and David M. Konisky, “The Introduction of Voter Registration and Its Effect on Turnout,” Political Analysis Winter 2006, Vol. Richard Wolffe In the 2000 election the battle between Democratic nominee Al Gore, the US vice president at the time, and the Republican choice George W Bush all ultimately came down to Florida. It is a seductively simple question. Bush was forced to reverse field, the episode seeming to confirm his lack of confidence in any matchup with the more experienced Gore. Despite Bush’s outreach, only about 9% of African Americans sided with the Republican. Should the result hang in the balance this cycle then once again it is likely that the Supreme Court will weigh in on whatever is the critical legal challenge. After this overbearing spectacle the polls shifted yet again, with the Republican gradually retaking a substantial lead. At year’s end the national economy was weakening, and polls showed that a substantial minority of citizens questioned Bush’s legitimacy. And waited. In the 2000 presidential election, Republican Texas Governor George W. Bush defeated Democratic incumbent Vice President Al Gore.