George W. Bush

=== 2000 presidential candidacy ===
{{Main|George W. Bush 2000 presidential campaign|2000 Republican Party presidential primaries|2000 United States presidential election}}

==== Primary ====
Bush portrayed himself as a [[compassionate conservative]], implying he was more centrist than other Republicans. He campaigned on a platform that included bringing integrity and honor back to the White House, increasing the size of the military, cutting taxes, improving education, and aiding minorities.<ref name=msn /> By early 2000, the race had centered on Bush and Arizona Senator [[John McCain]].<ref name=msn />

Bush won the [[Iowa caucuses]] and, although heavily favored to win the [[New Hampshire primary]], trailed McCain by 19 percent and lost. Despite this, he regained momentum and effectively became the front runner after the [[Republican Party presidential primaries, 2000|South Carolina primary]], which according to ''[[The Boston Globe]]'' made history for his campaign's negativity. ''[[The New York Times]]'' described it as a [[smear campaign]].<ref name="anatomy">{{cite news |url=https://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004/03/21/the_anatomy_of_a_smear_campaign/ |title=The anatomy of a smear campaign |work=The Boston Globe |last=Davis |first=Richard H. |date=March 21, 2004 |access-date=June 23, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060515081611/http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004/03/21/the_anatomy_of_a_smear_campaign/ |archive-date=May 15, 2006 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Hook|first1=Janet|last2=Finnegan|first2=Michael|date=March 17, 2007|title=McCain loses some of his rebel edge|work=Los Angeles Times|url=https://articles.latimes.com/2007/mar/17/nation/na-mccain17|access-date=June 23, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060515081611/http://articles.latimes.com/2007/mar/17/nation/na-mccain17|archive-date=May 15, 2006}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/19/us/politics/19mccain.html |title=Confronting Ghosts of 2000 in South Carolina |work=The New York Times |date=October 19, 2007 |access-date=April 14, 2013 |last=Steinhauer |first=Jennifer |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081209070019/http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/19/us/politics/19mccain.html |archive-date=December 9, 2008 }}</ref>

==== General election ====
[[File:ElectoralCollege2000.svg|thumb|upright=1.3|2000 electoral vote results]]

On July 25, 2000, Bush surprised some observers when he selected [[Dick Cheney]]{{snd}}a former [[White House chief of staff]], representative and secretary of defense{{snd}}to be his running mate. At the time, Cheney was serving as head of Bush's vice presidential search committee. Soon after at the [[2000 Republican National Convention]], Bush and Cheney were officially nominated by the Republican Party.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=La Ganga |first1=Maria L. |last2=Barabak |first2=Mark Z. |date=July 25, 2000 |title=Bush Chooses His Running Mate; All Signs Point to Cheney for Job |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-jul-25-mn-58518-story.html |access-date=January 3, 2023 |website=[[Los Angeles Times]] |language=en-US |archive-date=January 3, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230103230557/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-jul-25-mn-58518-story.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

Bush continued to campaign across the country and touted his record as Governor of Texas.<ref name=msn /> During his campaign, Bush criticized his Democratic opponent, incumbent Vice President [[Al Gore]], over [[Gun law in the United States|gun control]] and taxation.<ref>{{cite news |author1=Sack, Kevin |author2=Toner, Robin |date=August 13, 2000 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/08/13/us/2000-campaign-record-congress-gore-selected-issues-ready-for-prime-time.html |title=The 2000 Campaign: The Record; In Congress, Gore Selected Issues Ready for Prime Time |work=The New York Times |access-date=June 23, 2009 |archive-date=May 12, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110512192919/http://www.nytimes.com/2000/08/13/us/2000-campaign-record-congress-gore-selected-issues-ready-for-prime-time.html }}</ref>

When the election returns were tallied on November 7, Bush had won 29 states, including Florida. The closeness of the Florida outcome led to a [[United States presidential election in Florida, 2000|recount]].<ref name="msn" /> The initial recount also went to Bush, but the outcome was tied up in lower courts for a month until eventually reaching the [[U.S. Supreme Court]].<ref>{{Cite court|litigants=George W. Bush, et al., Petitioners v. Albert Gore, Jr., et al.|court=|reporter=U.S.|vol=531|opinion=98|date=December 12, 2000|url=https://law.cornell.edu/supct/html/00-949.ZPC.html}}Retrieved February 12, 2010.</ref> On December 9, in the controversial ''[[Bush v. Gore]]'' ruling,<ref>{{cite news|date=December 13, 2000|title=Poll: Majority of Americans accept Bush as legitimate president|url=http://cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/12/13/cnn.poll/index.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200108135219/http://cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/12/13/cnn.poll/index.html|archive-date=January 8, 2020|access-date=November 25, 2020|publisher=CNN}}</ref> the Court reversed a [[Florida Supreme Court]] decision that had ordered a third count, and stopped an ordered statewide hand recount based on the argument that the use of different standards among Florida's counties violated the [[Equal Protection Clause]] of the [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fourteenth Amendment]].<ref name=msn /> The machine recount showed that Bush had won the Florida vote by a margin of 537 votes out of six million casts.<ref name="2000results">{{cite web |date=June 2001 |url=https://fec.gov/resources/cms-content/documents/federalelections00.pdf |title=2000 Official General Election Presidential Results |access-date=November 25, 2020 |publisher=Federal Election Commission |archive-date=November 24, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201124180024/https://www.fec.gov/resources/cms-content/documents/federalelections00.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> Although he had received 543,895 fewer individual nationwide votes than Gore, Bush won the election, receiving 271 [[Electoral College (United States)|electoral votes]] to Gore's 266 (Gore had actually been awarded 267 votes by the states pledged to him plus the District of Columbia, but one D.C. elector abstained). Bush was the first person to [[List of United States presidential elections in which the winner lost the popular vote|win a U.S. presidential election with fewer popular votes]] than another candidate since [[Benjamin Harrison]] in 1888.<ref name=2000results />