Democratic Party (United States) presidential primaries, 2004

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John Kerry arrives at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, where he was officially designated as the Democratic Party nominee.

The 2004 Democratic primaries were the selection process by which the Democrats chose their candidates in the 2004 election for President and Vice President of the United States. Through a series of primaries and caucuses culminating in the Democratic National Convention, the party picked U.S. Senator John Kerry from Massachusetts, who selected John Edwards from North Carolina as his running mate.

Ten candidates vied for the nomination, including retired four-star general Wesley Clark, former Vermont Governor Howard Dean, John Edwards, and John Kerry. For most of 2003, Howard Dean had been the apparent front-runner for the nomination, performing strongly in most polls and leading the pack in fund-raising. However, the Iowa caucuses yielded unexpectedly strong results for Democratic candidates John Kerry, who earned 38% of the state's delegates, and John Edwards, who took 32%. Afterward, Kerry continued to dominate, winning in all but four states and the District of Columbia. Wesley Clark won Oklahoma, Howard Dean won Vermont and the District of Columbia, and John Edwards won North Carolina and South Carolina.

On July 6, John Kerry selected John Edwards as his running mate shortly before the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, Massachusetts, held later that month. Kerry and Edwards were formally nominated by the Democratic Party on July 28, 2004, at the Democratic National Convention in Kerry's hometown of Boston, Massachusetts. Kerry and Edwards subsequently lost the 2004 election to incumbent President, Republican George W. Bush.

[edit] The race begins

On May 31, 2002, Vermont Governor Howard B. Dean III formed a presidential exploratory committee. Though this was almost two years before the Iowa Caucus, Dean hoped the early start would give him some much needed name recognition. As a governor of a small state, Dean was not well-known outside of the region.

In December of that year, John F. Kerry, U.S. senator from Massachusetts, announced on NBC's Meet The Press his plans to form an exploratory committee for a possible 2004 presidential run, anticipating a formal announcement "down the road some months". Kerry's experience as a decorated Vietnam veteran generated some excitement among Democrats tired of being on the defensive about their candidates' suitability in the role of "commander in chief".

Two weeks later, former Vice President and 2000 Presidential candidate Al Gore announced on the CBS program 60 Minutes that he would not seek election to the presidency in 2004. Gore had recently wrapped up a nationwide book tour and had been widely expected to run.

Other potential candidates were likely waiting to see what Gore's plans were, and thus the floodgates opened in January 2003. Senator Joseph Lieberman, Gore's 2000 vice presidential running mate, had previously promised not to run should Gore seek their party's nomination. Freed from that obligation, Lieberman announced his intention to run. Additionally, many other candidates announced their intention to form committees (a formality usually indicating an official run): U.S. Sen. John R. Edwards of North Carolina, U.S. Rep. Richard A. "Dick" Gephardt of Missouri, and Reverend Al Sharpton of New York. In February, more candidates announced their intentions: former Senator from Illinois Carol Moseley Braun, U.S. Representative from Ohio Dennis Kucinich, and Senator Bob Graham of Florida.

There were other potential candidates for whom some speculation was buzzing about a potential run. These candidates felt it necessary to officially state that they would not seek the party nomination. These included United States Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, U.S. Senator Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, and former U.S. Senator Gary Hart from Colorado.

In April, Democratic fund-raising totals for the first quarter of 2003 were reported. John Edwards raised $7.4 million, John Kerry raised $7.0 million, Dick Gephardt raised $3.5 million, Joe Lieberman raised $3.0 million, Howard Dean raised $2.6 million, Bob Graham raised $1.1 million, and Dennis Kucinich and Carol Moseley Braun raised less than $1 million each.

[edit] Iraq War

After the 9/11 attacks, the Bush administration argued that the need to remove Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq had now become urgent. The stated premise was that Saddam's regime had tried to acquire nuclear material and had not properly accounted for biological and chemical material it was known to have possessed, potential weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in violation of U.N. sanctions. This situation escalated to the point that the United States assembled a group of about forty nations, including the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, and Poland, which Bush called the "coalition of the willing", to invade Iraq.

Protesters attend a demonstration in Washington, D.C., against President Bush's Iraq policy

The coalition invaded Iraq on March 20, 2003. Most contenders for the nomination were supportive of the effort. Only Dean and Kucinich firmly questioned the aims and tactics of the administration, setting themselves apart in the eyes of war protesters. However, speaking before an audience in Peterborough, New Hampshire, John Kerry said, "We need a regime change not just in Iraq. We need a regime change here in the United States." [1] Republicans criticized Kerry for speaking out against a wartime president. [2]

The invasion was swift, with the collapse of the Iraq government and the military of Iraq in about three weeks. The oil infrastructure of Iraq was rapidly secured with limited damage in that time. On May 1, George W. Bush landed on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in a Lockheed S-3 Viking, where he gave a speech announcing the end of major combat in the Iraq war. Clearly visible in the background was a banner stating "Mission Accomplished". Bush's landing was criticized by opponents as being overly theatrical and expensive. The banner, made by White House personnel (according to a CNN story: [3]) and placed there by the U.S. Navy, was criticized as premature. Nonetheless, Bush's approval rating in the month of May rode at 66%, according to a CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll. [4]

On May 3, 2003, Democrats met at the University of South Carolina in the first formal debate between the nine challengers for the nomination. The candidates disagreed on the war against Iraq, health insurance, and even President Bush's tax cuts, but united in criticizing Bush's handling of the economy.

[edit] Dean emerges as front-runner

Howard Dean declared his candidacy on June 23, 2003, winning the MoveOn "primary" days later. His campaign would go on to lead most polls and raise the most money in latter part of 2003.

In June 2003, Howard Dean aired the first television advertising of the 2004 campaign, spending more than $300,000. During that time, he formally announced his run for president, filing to form a presidential election campaign with the FEC. Later that month, liberal advocacy website MoveOn held the first ever online Democratic "primary", which lasted just over 48 hours. It was an unofficial and nonbinding affair, but with important symbolic and financial value. Of 317,647 votes, Howard Dean received 44%, Dennis Kucinich 24%, and John Kerry 16%. Had any candidate received 50% of the vote, the candidate would have received MoveOn's endorsement and financial support. Instead, MoveOn supported all the candidates. [5]

In July, the Democratic fund-raising numbers for the second quarter of 2003 were reported and announced. Howard Dean surprised many raising $7.5 million, John Kerry raised $6 million, while John Edwards and Joseph Lieberman raised roughly $5 million each. Dean's strength as a fund-raiser was attributed mainly to his innovative embrace of the Internet for campaigning. The majority of his donations came from individual Dean supporters, who came to be known as Deanites, or, more commonly, Deaniacs. His campaign's innovative use of the Internet helped to build a strongly supportive grassroots constituency, much of which remained intensely loyal to him long after the end of his candidacy.

By autumn of 2003, Dean had become the apparent front-runner for the Democratic nomination, performing strongly in most polls. Generally regarded as a pragmatic centrist during his time as governor, Dean emerged during his presidential campaign as something of a populist, denouncing the policies of the Bush administration (especially the 2003 invasion of Iraq) as well as fellow Democrats, who, in his view, failed to strongly oppose them.

During his presidential campaign, conservative critics labeled Dean's political views as those of an extreme liberal; however, in progressive Vermont, Dean, long known as a staunch advocate of fiscal restraint, was regarded as a moderate. Many left-wing critics who supported fellow Democrat Dennis Kucinich or independent Ralph Nader charged that, at heart, Dean was a "Rockefeller Republican"—socially liberal, while fiscally conservative.

[edit] Wesley Clark enters

Over the summer of 2003, several organized groups began a nationwide campaign to "draft" retired four-star general Wesley Clark for the Democratic Party's nomination for the 2004 presidential election. CNN on August 13 showed a commercial by one of these groups and interviewed Clark. He disavowed any connection with the "draft Clark" groups, but said he had been considering his position and that within a few weeks he would likely make public his decision on whether or not to run. He also fueled speculation with a television interview in which he first declared himself a Democrat.

On September 18, 2003, in Little Rock, Arkansas, Clark announced his intention to run in the presidential primary election for the Democratic Party nomination, becoming the tenth and last Democrat to do so (coming many months after the others): "My name is Wes Clark. I am from Little Rock, Arkansas, and I am here to announce that I intend to seek the presidency of the United States of America." He said, "We're going to run a campaign that will move this country forward, not back."

His campaign focused on themes of leadership and patriotism; early campaign ads relied heavily on biography. His late start left him with relatively few detailed policy proposals. This weakness was apparent in his first few debates, although he soon presented a range of position papers, including a major tax-relief plan. Nevertheless, many Democrats flocked to his campaign. They were drawn by his impressive military background, and saw such foreign policy credentials as a valuable asset in challenging George W. Bush post-September 11. Advisors and supporters portrayed him as more electable than Howard Dean, who was still the front-runner for the party's nomination. Despite the burst of enthusiasm for Clark in late 2003, Dean maintained a strong lead in the polls for the latter half of the year.

Criticism of Clark began almost the moment he entered the race. Originally heralded as an antiwar general, he stumbled in the first few days of his candidacy. He was perceived as changing his answer on how he would have voted on the Iraq war resolution. His supporters argued that his perceived indecision was due to lack of experience with the media and their insistence on short "sound bite" answers.

[edit] Iowa and New Hampshire

Leading up to the Iowa caucuses, Howard Dean was a strong front-runner, fueled by an official endorsement from Al Gore in December 2003, and bolstered by other key endorsements, such as Bill Bradley and Tom Harkin. Even opponent Carol Moseley Braun endorsed Dean after she dropped out of the race, having been soundly defeated by Dean in the Washington, D.C., primary. Jimmy Carter vowed not to endorse any candidate in the 2004 race, but gave an implicit endorsement after a Sunday church service that Carter and Dean attended together in Plains, Georgia, on the weekend before the Iowa caucuses.

Kerry celebrates after upset win in Iowa caucuses

On January 19, 2004, the Iowa caucuses yielded unexpectedly strong results for Democratic candidates John Kerry, who earned 38% of the state's delegates, and John Edwards, who took 32%. Former front-runner Howard Dean slipped to 18% and third place, and Richard Gephardt finished fourth (11%). Dean had been a strong contender for weeks in advance in that state, battling with Dick Gephardt for first place in the polls, so both campaigns were very surprised and disappointed with the result. Most analysts blamed intense negative campaigning between Dean and Gephardt as the reason for their losses. Following his disappointing showing in Iowa, Gephardt dropped out of the race.

The Dean campaign suffered a further blow when television coverage of Dean's speech at a rally after the Iowa caucuses set off a media firestorm. Forced to shout over the cheers of his enthusiastic audience, Dean did not realize the crowd noise was being filtered out by his unidirectional microphone, leaving only his full-throated exhortations audible to the television viewers. Pundits and comedians alike had a field day with a speech that, on television, seemed loud, peculiar, and unpresidential. [6] Dubbed by many as "Dean's Scream" or simply "The Scream", even the over coverage of Dean's speech in the media became a story of its own. [7]

On January 27 Kerry triumphed again, earning first place in the New Hampshire primary. As late as one week before the first votes were cast in Iowa's caucuses, Dean had enjoyed a 30% lead in New Hampshire opinion polls; accordingly, this loss represented another major setback to Dean's campaign. Clark took third place in New Hampshire, behind New Englanders Kerry and Dean.

[edit] The final stretch

Edwards' late stage momentum, as well as his departure from the negative campaigning which characterized other leading candidates [8], carried him into a surprising second place finish in Iowa with the support of 32% of caucus delegates, behind only John Kerry's 39% and ahead of former front-runner Howard Dean at 18%. Edwards finished with 12% support in the New Hampshire primary one week later, essentially tied for third place position with retired general Wesley Clark. The following week, Edwards won the South Carolina primary and nearly beat Clark in Oklahoma.

Edwards on the campaign trail in 2004.

After Howard Dean's withdrawal from the contest, Edwards became the only major challenger to Kerry for the Democratic nomination. However, Kerry continued to dominate, taking in a string of wins in Michigan, Washington, Maine, Tennessee, Washington, D.C., Nevada, Wisconsin, Utah, Hawaii, and Idaho. Remarking on an unexpectedly strong finish in the Wisconsin primary on February 17, Edwards humorously cautioned Kerry: "Objects in your mirror may be closer than they appear." Many other candidates dropped out during this time, leaving only Sharpton, Kucinich, and Edwards in the running. Dean, while not officially running, did not release his delegates, and still put in a strong showing considering that he was no longer mounting an official campaign.

Edwards maintained a positive campaign and largely avoided attacking Kerry until a February 29, 2004, debate in New York, where he attempted to put Kerry on the defensive by characterizing the front-runner as a "Washington insider" and by mocking Kerry's plan to form a committee to examine trade agreements.

In March's Super Tuesday, Kerry won decisive victories in the California, Connecticut, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, and Rhode Island primaries and the Minnesota caucuses. Dean, despite having withdrawn from the race two weeks earlier, won his home state of Vermont. Edwards finished only slightly behind Kerry in Georgia but, failing to win a single state, chose to withdraw from the presidential race. President Bush called Senator Kerry to congratulate him that evening.

On March 11, after meetings with Democratic superdelegates in Washington, D.C., and former primary election opponents, Massachusetts Senator Kerry accumulated the 2,162 delegates required to clinch the nomination. The Democratic National Committee's website acknowledged him as the party's nominee at that time, almost three months prior to the party convention.

See also the John Kerry presidential campaign, 2004

[edit] The nomination

Kerry gave a salute and proclaimed, "I'm John Kerry and I'm reporting for duty."

On July 6, John Kerry selected John Edwards as his running mate shortly before the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, Massachusetts, held later that month. Senators Kerry and Edwards were formally nominated by the Democratic Party at the convention. The Kerry/Edwards ticket was on the ballot in all 50 states, plus the District of Columbia. In New York, the ticket was also on the ballot as candidates of the Working Families Party.

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson served as chairman of the convention while former presidential advisor to Bill Clinton, Lottie Shackelford, served as vice chairman. Defining moments of the 2004 Democratic National Convention included the featured keynote speech of Barack Obama, a Honolulu native and candidate for the United States Senate from Illinois, Bill Clinton's opening night speech and the confirmation of the nomination of John Kerry as the candidate for president and of John Edwards as the candidate for vice president. Kerry made his Vietnam War experience a prominent theme. In accepting the nomination, he began his speech with "I'm John Kerry and I'm reporting for duty."

Kerry and Edwards faced incumbents George W. Bush and Dick Cheney of the Republican Party in the 2004 presidential election. Following his official nomination at the Convention, Kerry received only a small bounce in the polls and remained "neck and neck" with Bush. This was the first time in recent political history that a candidate failed to receive a substantial boost in post-convention poll numbers. Some political pundits attributed this small boost to the unusually small number of undecided voters as compared with previous presidential elections.

The general election was won by Bush, who defeated Kerry. The election was fought primarily on the issue of the conduct of the War on Terror. Bush defended the actions of his administration, while Kerry contended that the war had been fought incompetently, and that the Iraq War was a distraction from the War on Terror, not a part of it.

[edit] Candidates

Below is a list of candidates that ran for the 2004 nomination, as well as credible candidates who officially declined to run:

• Filed:
  • U.S. Senator John F. Kerry (Mass.)
  • Political activist Lyndon LaRouche of Virginia also ran as a nominal Democrat, although the Democratic party did not award LaRouche convention delegates or recognize his candidacy.

• Withdrew:
  • U.S. Senator D. Robert Graham (Fla.) (October 7, 2003)
  • Former Ambassador and former U.S. Senator Carol Moseley Braun (Illinois) (January 15, 2004) endorsed Howard Dean
  • U.S. Rep. Richard A. "Dick" Gephardt (Mo.) (January 20, 2004) endorsed John Kerry
  • U.S. Senator Joseph I. Lieberman (Conn.) (February 3, 2004)
  • Retired Gen. Wesley K. Clark of Arkansas (February 11, 2004) endorsed John Kerry
  • Former Vermont Gov. Howard B. Dean III, M.D., (February 18, 2004) endorsed John Kerry on March 25, 2004
  • U.S. Senator John R. Edwards (N.C.) (March 3, 2004) endorsed John Kerry
  • the Rev. Alfred Sharpton Jr. of New York (March 15, 2004) endorsed John Kerry¹
  • U.S. Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (Ohio) (July 23, 2004) endorsed John Kerry¹

¹: Sharpton and Kucinich dropped out of the race on these dates, but did not formally withdraw or stop accepting delegates until after the convention. Kucinich received somewhat less than one percent of the delegates' votes, the only candidate but Kerry to be so recognized.

• Declined:
  • Albert A. Gore Jr. (Former Vice President and Democratic candidate in the U.S. presidential election, 2000)
  • U.S. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), former First Lady
  • U.S. Senator Thomas A. Daschle (S.D.), Senate Minority Leader
  • U.S. Senator Russell D. Feingold (Wis.)
  • U.S. Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Del.)
  • U.S. Senator Christopher J. Dodd (Conn.)
  • Joseph G. "Gray" Davis Jr., former Governor of California
  • William W. Bradley, former U.S. senator from New Jersey and candidate for the Democratic nomination in the U.S. presidential election, 2000
  • Gary W. Hart former U.S. senator from Colorado and candidate for the Democratic nomination in the U.S. presidential election, 1988

[edit] Vice Presidential candidates

Senator John Edwards of North Carolina was designated by presumptive Democratic nominee John Kerry as his vice presidential choice on July 6, 2004.

Among those considered in the running for the post, but ultimately not selected by Kerry included

• U.S. Rep. Richard A. "Dick" Gephardt (Mo.).
• Iowa Gov. Thomas J. Vilsack.
• Retired Gen. Wesley K. Clark of Arkansas.
• U.S. Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Del.).
• U.S. Senator Richard J. "Dick" Durbin (Ill.).
• New Mexico Gov. William B. Richardson
• U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu (La.)

(March 7, 2004).

[edit] State-by-state results

There were 4,353 total delegates to the 2004 Democratic National Convention, of which 802 were "superdelegates": party leaders, even including some of the candidates, who were not bound by any state's primary or caucus votes and could change their support at any time. A candidate needed 2,162 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 offered delegates to the 2004 Democratic National Convention. John Kerry won 4,255 votes at the Convention, including those won by all of his former rivals except Dennis Kucinich, who received 37 votes. There were 26 abstentions.

Notes:

¹ Total delegate count includes "superdelegates," delegates not assigned directly from primary or caucus results. State delegate counts include only those delegates assigned as a result of the state primary or caucus.

² January 14 was a non-binding primary (no delegates apportioned). Ten of the District of Columbia's pledged delegates were awarded at ward-level caucuses on February 14; the other six were awarded based on the February 14 results in a convention on March 6.

³ Only local delegates were selected at the Iowa and Idaho caucuses. National delegates were selected later.

⁴ These figures are based on correctly-rounded percentages based on complete counts directly from the state parties and from the Washington Post. These figures differ slightly from those reported in most major media outlets (including some linked at the bottom of the page), where percentages have been slightly mis-stated for some candidates in some elections (either by applying inconsistent rounding or by inconsistently excluding minor candidates or candidates who had dropped out).

⁵ Expatriate Democrats, represented the Democrats Abroad organization, held their 2004 caucus on April 7 in Edinburgh, Scotland.

See also U.S. presidential election, 2004 timeline

[edit] See also

• Timeline for the 2004 election
• Vice-presidential selection in 2004 presidential campaign of John Kerry

[edit] Footnotes

1. Poor, Eric. "Kerry calls for new U.S leadership", Monadnock Ledger, April 03, 2003.
2. Pickler, Nedra. "POLITICAL NOTEBOOK: Hastert, Delay assail Kerry speech; Edwards chats with Bush; Dean writing a book", Associated Press, April 3, 2003.
3. Bash, Dana. "White House pressed on 'mission accomplished' sign", CNN, October 29, 2003.
4. "Bush Jumpstarts '04 Fundraising", Associated Press, May 24, 2003.
5. Report on the 2003 MoveOn.org Political Action Primary. MoveOn.org. Retrieved on September 28, 2005.
6. Gay, Verne. "Dean's theatrics draw mixed reviews", Newsday, January 21, 2004.
7. Salzman, Eric. "Dean's Scream: Not What It Seemed", CBS News, January 26, 2004.
8. Archibald, Randal. "Do You Need to Go Negative to Topple a Front-Runner?", New York Times, February 15, 2004.

[edit] External links

• General references
  • CNN: Election 2004
  • The New Republic Online: The TNR Primary
  • The Green Papers Online: 2004 Presidential Primaries At a Glance, Democratic Delegate Allocation
• News articles
  • No Democratic candidate gets 50 percent in online primary - Associated Press, June 27, 2003
  • Debate Bares Democrats' Great Divide - Washington Post, May 5, 2003
  • Democrats discuss Iraq early in debate - Associated Press, May 4, 2003

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