The 2000 presidential campaign of John McCain, the United States Senator from Arizona, began in September 1999. He announced his run for the Republican Party nomination for the presidency of the United States in the 2000 presidential election. Although McCain declared himself a candidate in April 1999 during the Kosovo crisis, the campaign's formal kickoff did not take place until September 27, 1999, in Nashua, New Hampshire.
McCain was the main challenger to Texas Governor George W. Bush, who had the political and financial support of most of the party establishment. McCain staged an upset win in the February 2000 New Hampshire primary, capitalizing on a message of political reform and "straight talk" that appealed to moderate Republican and independent voters and to the press. McCain's momentum was halted when Bush won the South Carolina primary later that month, in a contest that became famous for its bitter nature and an underground smear campaign run against McCain.
McCain won some subsequent primaries, but after the March 2000 Super Tuesday contests he was well behind in delegates and withdrew. He reluctantly endorsed Bush two months later and made occasional appearances for him during the general election.
The campaign was built around campaign finance reform, opposition to special interests, public service, national security, and McCain's military biography, all amplified by the Straight Talk Express bus and an intensive town-hall strategy in New Hampshire. Retrospectives have often treated the bid as both the high-water mark of McCain's "maverick" reputation and a major unrealized alternative in Republican Party politics at the turn of the twenty-first century.
Leading up to the announcement McCain was mentioned as a possible candidate for the Republican nomination beginning in 1997, but he took few steps to pursue it, instead concentrating on his 1998 senate re-election. pp. 192–94. The decision of General Colin Powell not to run helped persuade McCain that there might be an opening for him. McCain later wrote that he had a "vague aspiration" of running for president for a long time. p. 373. He would also be candid about his motivation: "I didn't decide to run for president to start a national crusade for the political reforms I believed in or to run a campaign as if it were some grand act of patriotism. In truth, I wanted to be president because it had become my ambition to become president. I was sixty-two years old when I made the decision, and I thought it was my one shot at the prize."
Potential weaknesses of a McCain candidacy included his senatorial accomplishments skewing towards the maverick side rather than those that would appeal to the party core, a lack of funds and of fund-raising prowess, and an unpredictability of personality and temperament. Potential assets included favorable treatment in the political media, as well as being featured on A&E's Biography series, and support from veterans. National polls showed McCain with low name recognition, but once voters were asked about a hypothetical candidate with a similar military biography, the numbers improved dramatically.
McCain's visibility rose further in 1999 because campaign finance reform—already identified with the McCain–Feingold bill—was being debated in the Senate at the same time he was exploring a White House bid. The failure of the legislation in October 1999 reinforced the campaign's central theme that special interests and party leaders had too much control over Washington. The Federal Election Commission declared McCain eligible for primary matching funds on July 1, 1999, giving the effort an important financial foundation before the formal launch.
Announcements and Kosovo McCain had initially planned on announcing his candidacy and beginning active campaigning on April 6, 1999.Timberg, An American Odyssey, p. 199. There was to be a four-day roadshow, whose first day would symbolically begin at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, then see early primary states New Hampshire and South Carolina, before concluding in home Phoenix, Arizona with a big audience, marching bands, and thousands of balloons. p. 190.
However, the Kosovo War intervened. On March 24, the NATO bombing campaign against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia began. McCain had voted the day before in favor of approval for the Clinton administration's action, saying "Atrocities are the signature of the Serbian Army. They've been carrying out atrocities since 1992. We must not permit the genocide that Milosevic has in mind for Kosovo to continue. We are at a critical hour." He was critical of past inaction by the Clinton administration in the matter, and within days was urging that the use of ground troops not be ruled out.Timberg, An American Odyssey, pp. 200–02. McCain became a very frequent guest on television talk shows discussing the conflict, and his "We are in it, now we must win it" stance drew much attention. On March 31, three American soldiers were captured by Yugoslavia; the next day, McCain canceled his planned roadshow, stating "this is not an appropriate time to launch a political campaign." He received media praise for his action and continued to be a highly visible spokesman for strong action regarding Kosovo; CNN pundit Mark Shields said that, "In thirty-five years in Washington, I have never seen a debate dominated by an individual in the minority party as I've seen this one dominated by John McCain."
On April 13, McCain simply issued a statement without fanfare that he would be a candidate: "While now is not the time for the celebratory tour I had planned, I am a candidate for president and I will formally kick off my campaign at a more appropriate time." McCain and his wife Cindy would make some campaign-related appearances over the spring and summer.Alexander, Man of the People, pp. 192–93. The delay in the formal kickoff also gave McCain months of high visibility as one of the Republican Party's most forceful voices on foreign policy while avoiding the optics of a celebratory launch during a military crisis.
McCain's co-authored, best-selling family memoir, Faith of My Fathers, published in August 1999, helped promote the new start of his campaign. The book garnered largely positive reviews, and McCain went on a 15-city book tour during September.Alexander, Man of the People, pp. 194–95. The tour's success and the book's high sales led to the themes of the memoir, which included McCain talking more about his Vietnam prisoner-of-war experience than he had in the past, becoming a major part of McCain's campaign messaging.
McCain finally formally announced his candidacy on September 27, 1999, before a thousand people in Greeley Park in Nashua, New Hampshire,Alexander, Man of the People, p. 197. saying "It is because I owe America more than she has ever owed me that I am a candidate for president to the United States." He further said he was staging "a fight to take our government back from the power brokers and special interests and return it to the people and the noble cause of freedom it was created to serve." As originally planned, he began his announcement day with a visit to the Naval Academy.
Campaign staff and policy team McCain's campaign used many veteran Washington political insiders, including some who had an insurgency-oriented or contrarian mindset. Rick Davis was the campaign manager for the McCain effort, while Mike Murphy was the overall strategist and John Weaver the chief political adviser.Alexander, Man of the People, p. 198. Greg Stevens was the media adviser and Mark Salter was the chief speechwriter (and credited co-author of McCain's books). Howard Opinsky was the campaign's press officer. Craig Turk was the general counsel.
After a while, a rivalry formed between Davis, at campaign headquarters, and Weaver and Murphy, who traveled on the campaign bus. Davis wanted a larger role in campaign strategy, and eventually differences between the two factions escalated to attacks made via the press.
The campaign also benefited from support by veteran New Hampshire Republicans such as former senator Warren Rudman, whose endorsement and organizational help in the state strengthened McCain's insurgent appeal among independents and reform-minded Republicans.
Campaign message and strategy McCain's campaign sought to turn his Senate image as a "maverick" into an outsider presidential candidacy. He cast himself as a reform Republican, emphasizing campaign finance reform, public service, military readiness, and a willingness to confront party orthodoxy. This message helped distinguish him from Bush, whose candidacy rested more heavily on establishment backing, fundraising strength, and support from core Republican constituencies.
Contemporary observers also noted a tension between McCain's reformist image and his generally conservative Senate voting record. That contrast became part of the press fascination with the campaign, helping explain why McCain could appeal to moderates, independents, and reporters without ever fully ceasing to be a conservative Republican senator.
McCain's style of campaigning was inseparable from the Straight Talk Express, a rolling press cabin and town-hall circuit that allowed him to compensate for Bush's financial advantages with free media and direct voter contact. Later reminiscences from reporters and aides described the arrangement as unusually open and central to the campaign's identity.
Campaign developments 1999 There was a crowded field of Republican candidates, but the big leader in terms of establishment party support and fundraising was Texas Governor and presidential son George W. Bush.Timberg, An American Odyssey, p. 197.Alexander, Man of the People, p. 217. Indeed, by the time of McCain's formal announcement, top-echelon Republican contenders such as Lamar Alexander, John Kasich, and Dan Quayle were already withdrawing from the race due to Bush's strength. As McCain would later write, "No one thought I had much of a chance, including me."McCain, Worth the Fighting For, p. 369. Four of McCain's fifty-five fellow Republican senators endorsed his candidacy. pp. 96–97.
The day after McCain announced, Bush made a show of visiting Phoenix and displaying that he, not McCain, had the endorsement of Arizona Governor Jane Dee Hull and several other prominent local political figures. McCain did have the support of the rest of the Republican Arizona congressional delegation. Hull would continue to attack McCain during the campaign, and was featured in high-profile Arizona Republic and New York Times stories about McCain's reputation for having a bad temper, with the latter featuring on-the-record criticism from Governor of Michigan John Engler. By early November, stories about McCain's temper problem were frequent enough that Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz wrote a survey article about them.Alexander, Man of the People, p. 203. Some of McCain's opponents, including those in or close to the Senate Republican leadership, intimated that McCain's temper was a sign of mental instability. p. 23. The notion that this was due to McCain's POW days caused Admiral James Stockdale, a fellow former POW and 1992 vice-presidential candidate for Ross Perot, to write an op-ed piece for The New York Times, "John McCain in the Crucible". In it, Stockdale said that the reverse was true: that the experience of resisting during the POW experience made former POWs more emotionally stable in later life, not less.Alexander, Man of the People, p. 206. In early December, McCain released some 1,500 pages of his medical and psychiatric records, which showed several psychiatric evaluations over a number of years following his POW release that indicated no signs of lingering mental or emotional difficulty from that period.Alexander, Man of the People, p. 208.