John McCain presidential campaign, 2000
| John McCain for President 2000 | |
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| Campaign | U.S. presidential election, 2000 |
| Candidate |
John McCain U.S. Senator of Arizona (1987–Present) |
| Affiliation | Republican Party |
| Status | Withdrawn (March 9, 2000) |
| Key people |
Rick Davis (Manager) Mike Murphy (Strategist) John Weaver (Chief Political Adviser) Greg Stevens (Media Adviser) Mark Salter (Chief Speechwriter) Howard Opinsky (Press Officer) Craig Turk (General Counsel) |
| Website | |
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John McCain 2000 (archived – Mar. 6, 2000) |
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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.
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 grudgingly endorsed Bush two months later and made occasional appearances for him during the general election.
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. 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. 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."
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