Democratic Party (United States) presidential primaries, 1992
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The 1992 Democratic presidential primary chose the Democratic nominee for the general election.
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[edit] Candidates
- Larry Agran, mayor of Irvine, California
- Edmund G. "Jerry" Brown Jr., former governor of California and candidate for the 1976 and 1980 nominations
- William J. Clinton, governor of Arkansas (nominee)
- Thomas R. Harkin, U.S. senator from Iowa
- J. Robert Kerrey, U.S. senator from Nebraska
- Tom Laughlin, film actor and director from California
- Eugene McCarthy, former U.S. senator from Minnesota and candidate for the 1968 and 1972 nominations, as well as in independent run for the presidency in 1976
- Paul E. Tsongas, former U.S. senator from Massachusetts
- L. Douglas Wilder, governor of Virginia
- Charles Woods, millionaire Alabama businessman and frequent candidate for U.S. Senate and for Governor of Alabama.
- In addition, Ralph Nader ran a write-in campaign in the New Hampshire primary, Lyndon LaRouche made his usual run for the nomination and as before was not recognized by the party as a serious candidate, and there were several other lesser-known primary candidates whose names appeared only on the New Hampshire ballot.
[edit] History
The 1992 election was thought to be nearly unwinnable by many Democrats. President George Herbert Walker Bush was extremely popular after the Gulf War and the nation's poor economy did not seem to hurt his record popularity. Thus, many of the most noted Democrats, such as Mario Cuomo and Dick Gephardt, stayed out of the election and the contestants became known as the "Seven Dwarfs" (a sarcastic reference to the Disney movie Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs) as none was extremely well known.
Harkin had an early victory in his home state of Iowa, a contest that was largely uncontested by the other candidates, but fared poorly elsewhere. Tsongas emerged as the early front runner and won the New Hampshire Primary. During the summer of 1991 Clinton had been polling strongly, but a collection of sex scandals exploded and during the winter he plummeted to single digit support. After finishing a surprisingly strong second in New Hampshire he was proclaimed to be the "comeback kid" and gained a great deal of momentum. Meanwhile, Tsongas became plagued by questions about his health. Clinton eventually won a major victory in Illinois and swept the rest of the country. Brown emerged as the liberal alternative to Clinton towards the end, with Agran also picking up some protest-vote support late in the campaign, but both were ultimately unsuccessful.
[edit] Outside resources
The story of the race was covered in the film The War Room and fictionalized into the novel and film Primary Colors.
[edit] References
- Clinton, Bill (2005). My Life. Vintage. ISBN 1-4000-3003-X.
