1976 Republican Party vice presidential candidate selection
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3e/1977_Dole_p55_%28cropped%29.jpg/200px-1977_Dole_p55_%28cropped%29.jpg)
This article lists those who were potential candidates for the Republican nomination for Vice President of the United States in the 1976 election. At the 1976 Republican National Convention, incumbent President Gerald Ford narrowly won the presidential nomination over former California Governor Ronald Reagan. Ford had decided not to choose Vice President Nelson Rockefeller as his running mate, due to Rockefeller's unpopularity with the right wing of the Republican Party.[1] He instead chose Senator Bob Dole of Kansas. Dole was acceptable to the conservative wing of the party, and Ford hoped that Dole would help the ticket win the western states and the agricultural vote.[2] The Ford-Dole ticket lost the general election to the Carter-Mondale ticket. Though he would not win the presidential nomination, Reagan announced before the convention that he would pick Senator Richard Schweiker of Pennsylvania as his running mate.[3] Dole went on to become Senate Republican leader, and the Republican presidential nominee in 1996, losing the general election to incumbent President Bill Clinton.
Potential candidates
- Kansas Senator Bob Dole
- Ambassador Anne Armstrong[4]
- Former California Governor Ronald Reagan[2]
- Former Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus[2]
- Secretary of Commerce Elliot Richardson[2]
- Tennessee Senator Howard Baker[2]
- Former Texas Governor John Connally[2]
- Former Treasury Secretary William E. Simon[2]
- Missouri Governor Kit Bond
- Vice President Nelson Rockefeller
See also
- 1976 United States presidential election
- 1976 Republican Party presidential primaries
- 1976 Republican National Convention
References
- ^ Roberts, Sam (31 December 2016). "Serving as Ford's No. 2, Rockefeller Never Took His Eye Off Top Job". New York Times. Retrieved 5 October 2015.
- ^ a b c d e f g Mieczkowski, Yanek (22 April 2005). Gerald Ford and the Challenges of the 1970s. University Press of Kentucky. pp. 320–323. ISBN 0813172055. Retrieved 5 October 2015.
- ^ Negrin, Matt (24 February 2008). "Risky strategy that doomed Reagan in '76 could boost Democrats". Boston Globe. Retrieved 27 April 2016.
- ^ Sigelman, Lee; Wahlbeck, Paul (December 1997). "The "Veepstakes": Strategic Choice in Presidential Running Mate Selection". The American Political Science Review. 91 (4): 858. JSTOR 2952169.