The 2000 presidential campaign of Pat Buchanan, conservative pundit and advisor to both President Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, was formally launched on March 2, 1999, as Buchanan announced his intention to seek the Republican Party nomination for the presidency of the United States in the 2000 presidential election. It marked Buchanan's third primary campaign for the presidency, following his bids in 1992 and 1996. Although he had not attained the nomination either time, he had been regarded as a consequential party figure. Early primary surveys found Buchanan polling in the single digits and following the publication of his book A Republic, Not an Empire, which generally advocated for noninterventionist and "America first" foreign policy, some within the Republican Party condemned Buchanan's foreign policy views. There began to be speculation that Buchanan would leave the Republican Party in favor of the Reform Party, a third party qualified for matching federal campaign funds.
On October 25, 1999, Buchanan formally announced that he was departing the GOP and would instead seek the Reform nomination. In the primary campaign, he briefly faced as an opponent future president Donald Trump; however, in February 2000, Trump ended his campaign and left the party, objecting to its extremist elements and questioning whether the party could win. The other serious contender for the nomination was Natural Law Party politician and physicist John Hagelin, who campaigned on a continuation of Perot's approach and allegedly planned to combine the Reform and Natural Law parties. Buchanan won the national mail-in primary by a wide margin, but Hagelin supporters contended that some of the ballots were fraudulently cast and filed multiple complaints with the FEC. Hagelin supporters ultimately hosted an alternative convention concurrent with the official Reform Party. Buchanan secured the Reform Party nomination at the August 2000 convention, and selected educator and conservative activist Ezola B. Foster as his running-mate.
A number of lawsuits arose from the campaign and the transfer of power within the national party. In February, party officials voted to remove party chair Jack Gargan, a Buchanan critic, and to replace him with Buchanan's campaign chair, economist and Perot's 1996 running mate Pat Choate. Gargan filed a suit alleging that the meeting at which officials cast their votes was illegally convened, but a judge ruled that Choate was the rightful chair. Concurrently, the chair of the New Hampshire Reform Party threatened legal action against Buchanan's campaign for misleading mailers sent to Reform voters within the state, and Buchanan filed a suit against the Federal Election Commission (FEC) after the body declined to act on a petition to be included in the nationally televised presidential debates. A federal judge ruled in favor of the FEC. Another suit, filed by Hagelin, alleged that he was the rightful nominee, and thus entitled to the matching federal campaign funds; the funds were, following a legal battle, awarded to the Buchanan campaign.
Buchanan launched his general election campaign on September 18 with a rally at Bob Jones University. He ran on an anti-NAFTA, pro-life, anti-war, non-interventionist platform similar to that of his two previous presidential campaigns. In the general election, the campaign attracted attention with a series of television commercials which dealt with issues such as immigration, gay rights, and campaign finance, and drew some criticism for the support which it attracted from the far right. The Buchanan-Foster ticket went on to win 449,895 votes in the November election, the fourth-highest total. The ticket was also speculated to indirectly have influenced the result of the election, due to the design of a Palm Beach, Florida, ballot which led many Gore supporters to accidentally cast a vote for Buchanan. The Bush campaign contended that Palm Beach County was a Reform Party "stronghold", but Buchanan and his Florida campaign staff disputed that characterization. Following the election, Buchanan briefly maintained ties with the party, but formally left it shortly thereafter and became a political independent.
Primary campaign Republican candidacy
In 1992, Pat Buchanan mounted his first presidential campaign, challenging incumbent president George H. W. Bush for the Republican nomination. Buchanan campaigned as a more—conservative alternative to Bush, and although he did not win any primary contests, he received 37 percent of the vote in the New Hampshire primary and ultimately received a speaking slot at the 1992 Republican National Convention, where he delivered his famous "culture wars" speech. His surprisingly strong showing in the primary was regarded as foreshadowing Bush's electoral troubles which would culminate in his losing the general election to Bill Clinton. In 1996, Buchanan again sought the Republican presidential nomination, in total receiving 21 percent of the primary vote and winning four contests (in addition to placing a close second in the Iowa caucuses), but losing the nomination to Bob Dole.
In February 1999, Buchanan took leave from Crossfire, the CNN program which he had long co-hosted. The New York Times reported that an announcement of his third presidential campaign was imminent. The following week, on March 6, 1999, Buchanan announced his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination. A former campaign advisor predicted that economic issues, such as dislocation, would be his top campaign issue, since economic issues had been central to his previous campaigns and he believed no other candidate was discussing them. He soon thereafter hosted a rally in Weirton, West Virginia.
Early polling showed Buchanan in the single digits in both Iowa and New Hampshire. His campaign did not receive the same level of attention as his previous bids, and in August 1999, he placed fifth in the Iowa Straw Poll behind George W. Bush, Steve Forbes, Elizabeth Dole, and Gary Bauer. This was regarded as a disappointing finish. As the year progressed, there began to be speculation that Buchanan, because tensions with the Republican Party, might defect from the party and instead seek the nomination of Ross Perot's Reform Party, which thanks to its 1996 showing qualified for $13,000,000 in matching federal campaign funds and guaranteed ballot access in a number of states. At a June 1999 luncheon in Washington, former presidential advisor Roger Stone first suggested to Bay Buchanan, Pat's sister and campaign manager, that her brother consider running for the Reform nomination. Roger was running a consultancy at the time and tasked one of his employees, William von Raab, with exploring the possibility of Reform supporting Buchanan.
Early Reform Party primary campaign Departure from the Republican Party
On October 25, 1999, Buchanan announced at a Falls Church, Virginia, news conference attended by approximately 350 supporters that he was formally departing the Republican Party in favor of the Reform Party, and would continue seeking the presidency under the latter party. He contended that the Democratic and Republican Parties "have become nothing but two wings of the same bird of prey," pointing to what he characterized as their similar positions on issues such as international trade and "soft money" in campaign finance. In the speech, he also called for America to pursue a less-interventionist foreign policy. He addressed accusations that he supported isolationism by saying that "if they mean I intend to isolate America from the bloody territorial and ethnic wars of the new century, I plead guilty." Buchanan also acknowledged the need to improve his relationship with minority voters, as the Reform Party's base was far more racially diverse than the supporters of his two previous presidential runs. His office began consulting with Lenora Fulani, an African-American socialist and Reform Party official. In November 1999, she became an advisor to his campaign, eventually serving as its co-chair.
Republican officials generally expressed satisfaction at Buchanan's break from the GOP. Senator John McCain, at the time competing for the Republican presidential nomination, announced that "I do not mourn his departure" and criticized Bush for not being more critical of Buchanan. Shortly following Buchanan's announcement of his Reform candidacy, a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll asked voters whether they would vote for Buchanan as the Reform nominee. Two-thirds of respondents said that they would "definitely not" vote for him, while one-quarter said they "would consider voting for him", and four percent said they would definitely vote for him. Among Republican voters, only four percent named him their first choice, compared to sixty-six percent for eventual nominee George W. Bush. Another Gallup poll shortly after Buchanan's announcement showed him at five percent in a general-election matchup with Bush and Gore, with Bush leading by eight points among registered voters.
Book controversy
In September 1999, the month before Buchanan announced his Reform Party candidacy, he published a book titled A Republic, Not an Empire, via Regnery Publishing. The book was regarded by some as a work of campaign literature. The work contended that the United States should withdraw from or scale back involvement in international diplomatic and trade bodies, and also contended that the United States' involvement in many military conflicts — including both world wars — was ill-advised. This led to accusations of bigotry, including by Reform Party figures. During the primary election campaign, Donald Trump would refer to the book when accusing Buchanan of intolerance.
Advisors and supporters Virginia Abernethy, anthropologist, journalist, member of the Council of Conservative Citizens Pat Choate, economist and 1996 Reform Party vice presidential candidate Frederick B. Dent, 21st United States Secretary of Commerce (1973–1975), 5th United States Trade Representative (1975–1977) Lenora Fulani, psychologist and 1988 and 1992 New Alliance Party presidential candidate (revoked in June 2000) Brian Moore, 2008 Socialist Party presidential candidate The Spotlight, weekly Washington, DC newspaper William White Williams, member of the National Alliance (United States) Buchanan's campaign structure was noted for its lack of a formal advisory committee. His sister and former Reagan Treasurer of the United States Bay Buchanan served as his campaign manager. Reform Party official and two-time presidential candidate Lenora Fulani, who identified as a Marxist–Leninist, endorsed Buchanan's primary candidacy and, in November, became co-chair of his campaign, a move which some interpreted as an effort by Buchanan to expand his base of support to include more traditionally left-leaning voters, such as African-Americans and gays, who had backed Fulani's campaigns. However, this pairing was regarded as unexpected by some, given their different views on many issues, and a report by the Center for Public Integrity accused Buchanan's choice of campaign officials as politically opportunistic and ideologically hypocritical, since he espoused conservative views which were often at odds with Fulani's. Another top advisor to the campaign was Scott McConnell, a controversial former New York Post columnist.
Buchanan's candidacy also attracted the support of far-right activists, some of whom began assuming positions of power within the Reform Party, such as chairs of state chapters; the Southern Poverty Law Center argued that the ideological makeup of the party under Buchanan was similar to that of the far-right French party National Front, then headed by Jean Marie Le Pen. This ideological shift alienated some longtime Reform Party members, who began departing the party, leaving behind what the Southern Poverty Law Center deemed a "leaner and much meaner Reform Party".