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2,209 delegates to theRepublican National Convention 1,105 (majority)[1] votes needed to win | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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 Gold denotes a state won byGeorge H. W. Bush.Grey denotes a state or territory that did not hold a primary/caucus. | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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The1992 Republican Party presidential primaries were thepresidential primaries and caucuses of theRepublican Party, which took place in all 50U.S. states andWashington, D.C., between February 18 to June 9, 1992, in which voters selected 2,277 delegates sent to theRepublican National Convention, held inHouston, Texas, between August 17 and August 20, 1992. At the convention, Republican delegates nominatedGeorge H. W. Bush, the incumbentU.S. president, as the Republican Party'spresidential nominee, andDan Quayle, the incumbent vice president, as his vice presidential running mate.
In thepresidential election held November 3, 1992, Bush and Quayle were defeated byDemocrat presidential nomineeBill Clinton andAl Gore, his vice presidential running mate.
Although he briefly weighed forgoing a second term,PresidentGeorge H. W. Bush ultimately sought re-election and entered the 1992 Republican primaries as theincumbentfrontrunner.[2][3]
Bush was challenged for the Republican nomination byPat Buchanan, aconservative author, commentator, and aides of PresidentsNixon, andReagan.[4] During early counting in theNew Hampshire primary, it appeared that the president might actually lose.[5] However, Buchanan faded by the end of the evening, and Bush won the rest of the primaries. Bush's margins in many of the primaries were not as large as expected, and helped led to the rise ofRoss Perot as an independent candidate.
Republican Louisiana State Representative and formerKu Klux Klan leaderDavid Duke also ran in a number of primaries, but he did not receive any delegates. FormerGovernorHarold Stassen ofMinnesota 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 theMinnesota Republican Party's 1992 state convention.
As Buchanan's candidacy relied heavily on a strong showing in theNew 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 anExeter town hall: "Message: I care".[6] Some sources claim that this was the result of Bush mistakenly reading acue card aloud.[7]
On primary night, President Bush carried New Hampshire with 53% of the vote. Buchanan finished second with 38% of the vote.[8]
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 theGeorgia 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.
| Candidate | Most recent office | Home State | Campaign Withdrawal date | Popular vote | Contests won | Running mate | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| George Bush | .jpg) | President of the United States (1989–1993) |  |  (Campaign) Secured nomination: May 5, 1992 | 9,199,463 (72.84%) | 51 | Dan Quayle |  | |
| Candidate | Most recent office | Home State | Campaign Withdrawal date | Popular vote | Contests won | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pat Buchanan | .jpg) | White House Communications Director (1985–1987) |  |  (Campaign) | 2,899,488 (22.96%) | N/A | |
| David Duke |  | Member of theLouisiana House of Representatives (1989–1992) |  |  (Campaign) | 119,115 (0.94%) | N/A | |
| Pat Paulsen |  | Comedian |  | 10,984 (0.09%) | N/A | ||
| Harold Stassen |  | Director of theUnited States Foreign Operations Administration (1953–1955) | .svg) | 8,099 (0.06%) | N/A | ||
| Jack Fellure | .jpg) | Former Engineer and Perennial Candidate |  | 6,296 (0.05%) | N/A | ||
| Candidate | Campaign committee | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Raised | Total contrib. | Ind. contrib. | Pres. pub. funds | Spent | ||||
| George H. W. Bush[a][9] | $104,974,415.00 | $31,802,276.00 | $31,711,102.00 | $65,898,513.00 | $107,637,852.00 | |||
| Pat Buchanan[10] | $14,933,082.00 | $7,232,943.00 | $7,206,793.00 | $5,351,770.00 | $14,591,679.00 | |||
| David Duke[11] | $372,146.00 | $221,854.00 | $221,945.00 | $0.00 | $457,449.00 | |||
| Jack Fellure[12] | $46,748.00 | $1,260.00 | $1,425.00 | $0.00 | $47,559.00 | |||
Source[14]
| Date[15][16] (daily totals) | Total pledged delegates[17] | Contest | Delegates won and popular vote | Total | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| George H. W. Bush | Pat Buchanan | Others | ||||
| February 10 | 0 | Iowa caucus[18] | Cancelled. | |||
| February 18 | 23 | New Hampshire primary[19] | 14 92,271 (53.2%) | 9 65,106 (37.5%) | 3,779 (2.3%)[b] | |
| February 19 | 22 | South Dakota primary[20][21] | 14 30,964 (69.3%) | — | 5 13,707 (30.68%)[c] | |
| March 3 (131) | 37 | Colorado primary[22] | 26 132,049 (68.2%) | 11 58,730 (30.3%) | 2,957 (1.53%)[d] | |
| 42 | Maryland primary[22] | 42 168,898 (69.9%) | 72,701 (30.1%) | — | ||
| 52 | Georgia primary[22][23] | 52 291,905 (64.3%) | 162,085 (35.7%) | — | ||
| March 7 | 36 | South Carolina primary[24][25] | 36 99,558 (66.9%) | 38,247 (25.7%) | 11,035 (7.41%)[e] | |
| 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[f] | ||
| 40 | Massachusetts primary | 28 176,868 (65.6%) | 12 74,797 (27.7%) | 24,182[g] | ||
| 34 | Mississippi primary | 25 111,794 (72.3%) | 6 25,891 (16.7%) | 4 17,023 (10.6%)[h] | ||
| 38 | Oklahoma primary | 27 151,612 (69.6%) | 11 57,933 (26.6%) | 8,176 (2.6%)[i] | ||
| 16 | Rhode Island primary | 11 9,853 (63.0%) | 5 4,967 (31.8%) | 816 (4.9%)[j] | ||
| 49 | Tennessee primary | 38 178,216 (72.5%) | 11 54,585 (22.2%) | 12,849 (5.2%)[k] | ||
| 124 | Texas primary | 92 556,280 (69.8%) | 32 190,572 (23.9%) | 50,294 (6.0%)[l] | ||
| March 17 (162) | 88 | Illinois primary | 68 556,280 (76.4%) | 20 186,915 (22.5%) | 9,637 (1.2%)[m] | |
| 74 | Michigan primary | 54 301,948 (67.2%) | 20 112,122 (25.0%) | 35,063 (7.7%)[n] | ||
| March 24 | 38 | Connecticut primary | 29 66,356 (66.7%) | 9 21,815 (22.0%) | 11,475 (11.4%)[o] | |
| 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%)[p] | |
| 34 | Minnesota primary | 25 84,841 (63.9%) | 9 32,094 (24.2%) | 15,821 (8.8%)[q] | ||
| 103 | New York [?] | 103 | – | – | ||
| 37 | Wisconsin primary | 30 364,507 (75.6%) | 7 78,516 (16.3%) | 39,225 (5.3%)[r] | ||
| 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%)[s] | ||
| May 10 | 20 | Montana primary | 14 65,176 (71.6%) | 2 10,701 (11.8%) | 3 15,098 (16.6%)[t] | |
| May 12 (46) | 27 | Nebraska primary | 23 156,346 (81.4%) | 4 25,847 (13.5%) | 9,905 (1.5%)[u] | |
| 19 | West Virginia primary | 16 99,994 (80.5%) | 3 18,067 (14.6%) | 6,096 (4.9%)[v] | ||
| May 19 (62) | 25 | Oregon primary | 17 203,957 | 5 57,730 | 3 42,472[w] | |
| 37 | Washington primary | 25 86,839 (67.0%) | 4 13,273 (10.2%) | 8 29,543 (20.8%)[x] | ||
| May 26 (92) | 31 | Arkansas primary | 27 45,590 (83.1%) | 4 6,551 (11.9%) | 2,742 (5.0%)[y] | |
| 23 | Idaho primary | 15 73,297 (63.5%) | 3 15,167 (13.1%) | 5 27,038 (23.4%)[c] | ||
| 38 | Kentucky primary | 28 75,371 (74.5%) | — | 10 25,748 (25.5%)[c] | ||
| June 2 (439) | 41 | Alabama primary | 33 122,703 (74.3%) | 12,588 (7.6%) | 8 29,830 (18.1%)[c] | |
| 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%)[z] | ||
| 27 | New Mexico primary | 19 55,522 (63.8%) | 7,871 (9.1%) | 8 23,574 (27.1%)[c] | ||
| 20 | North Dakota primary | 17 39,863 (83.4%) | — | 3 7,945 (16.6%)[aa] | ||
| 85 | Ohio primary | 71 716,766 | 14 143,687 | — | ||
| Total[26] | 1,973 | 1,544 9,199,463 (72.8%) | 367 2,899,488 (23.0%) | 62 497,650 (4.2%) | 12,596,601 | |
Popular vote result:[27]
