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The2000 California Republican presidential primary was held on March 7, 2000.GovernorGeorge W. Bush ofTexas won easily overSenatorJohn McCain ofArizona and former AmbassadorAlan Keyes.
At the time, California had a blanket primary, meaning all candidates of all parties were on the same ballot, but the state parties, exploiting a loophole in the election law, used color-coded ballots so that only votes from party members would count. Thus, many votes for McCain—nearly 800,000—were discounted. It was thought by pundits that McCain could demonstrate his viability in a large Democratic state if he won the general primary; however, Bush still won a solid majority with all the non-Republican votes factored in.
| Key: | Withdrew prior to contest |
| 2000 California Republican presidential primary[1][2] | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | GOP votes | GOP % | Total votes | Total % | National delegates[3] |
| George W. Bush | 1,725,162 | 60.58% | 2,168,466 | 52.21% | 162 |
| John McCain | 988,706 | 34.72% | 1,780,570 | 42.87% | 0 |
| Alan Keyes | 112,747 | 3.96% | 170,442 | 4.10% | 0 |
| Steve Forbes | 8,449 | 0.30% | 14,484 | 0.35% | 0 |
| Gary Bauer | 6,860 | 0.24% | 10,529 | 0.25% | 0 |
| Orrin Hatch | 5,997 | 0.21% | 9,202 | 0.22% | 0 |
| Glenn Redwood (write-in) | N/A | 0.59% | 89 | 0.59% | 0 |
| David S. Rosenbaum (write-in) | N/A | <0.01% | 4 | <0.01% | 0 |
| Totals | N/A | 100.00% | 4,153,702 | 100.00% | 162 |
