Bill Bradley Presidential Campaign, 2000

Bradley ran in the 2000 presidential primaries, opposing incumbent Vice President Al Gore for his party's nomination. Bradley campaigned as the liberal alternative to Gore, taking positions to the left of Gore on a number of issues, including universal health care, gun control, and campaign finance reform.

On the issue of taxes, Bradley trumpeted his sponsorship of the Tax Reform Act of 1986, which had significantly cut tax rates while abolishing dozens of loopholes. He voiced his belief that the best possible tax code would be one with low rates and no loopholes, but he refused to rule out the idea of raising taxes to pay for his health care program.

On public education, Bradley reversed his previous support of school vouchers, declaring them a failure. He proposed to make over $2 billion in block grants available to each state every year for education. He further promised to bring 60,000 new teachers into the education system annually by offering college scholarships to anyone who agreed to become a teacher after graduating.

Bradley also made child poverty a significant issue in his campaign. Having voted against the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, better known as the "Welfare Reform Act," which, he said, would result in even higher poverty levels, he promised to repeal it as president. He also promised to address the minimum wage, expand the Earned Income Tax Credit, allow single parents on welfare to keep their child support payments, make the Dependent Care Tax Credit refundable, build support homes for pregnant teenagers, enroll 400,000 more children in Head Start, and increase the availability of food stamps.

Although Gore was considered the party favorite, Bradley did receive several high-profile endorsements. He was supported by Senators Paul Wellstone, Bob Kerrey, and Daniel Patrick Moynihan; former Senators John A. Durkin and Adlai Stevenson III; Governor John Kitzhaber; former Governors Lowell Weicker (a former Republican), Mario Cuomo, Tony Earl, Ray Mabus, Brendan Byrne, Robert W. Scott, Neil Goldschmidt, Philip W. Noel, Kenneth M. Curtis, and Patrick Lucey; Congresspeople George Miller, Bill Lipinski, Pete Stark, Jerrold Nadler, Luis Gutiérrez, Anna Eshoo, Jim McDermott, and Diana DeGette; former Congresspeople Jim McNulty, Mary Rose Oakar, Michael J. Harrington, Andy Jacobs, and David Skaggs; former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich; former New York City Mayor Ed Koch; former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker; filmmaker Spike Lee; San Francisco Supervisor Tom Ammiano; Seattle Mayor Paul Schell; Harvard Professor Cornel West; feminist icon Betty Friedan; former Watergate Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox; and basketball stars Michael Jordan and Phil Jackson.

Bradley's campaign initially had strong prospects, due to high-profile endorsements and as his fundraising efforts gave him a deep war chest. However, it floundered, in part because it was overshadowed by Senator John McCain's far more attention-gaining, but ultimately unsuccessful, campaign for the Republican nomination; McCain had stolen Bradley's "thunder" on several occasions. Bradley was much embarrassed by his two to one defeat in the Iowa caucus, despite spending heavily there, as the unions pledged their support for Gore. He then lost the New Hampshire primary 53-47%. Bradley finished a distant second during each of the primaries on Super Tuesday.

(1996 ←) United States presidential election, 2000 (→ 2004)
  • General election results
  • State results
  • Florida results
Republican Party
  • Convention
  • Primaries
Nominee
George W. Bush (campaign)
VP nominee
Dick Cheney
Candidates
Lamar Alexander
Gary Bauer
Pat Buchanan
Herman Cain
Elizabeth Dole
Jack Fellure
Steve Forbes
Orrin Hatch
John Kasich
Alan Keyes
Andy Martin
John McCain
Dan Quayle
Bob Smith
Democratic Party
  • Convention
  • Primaries
Nominee
Al Gore (campaign)
VP nominee
Joe Lieberman
Candidates
Bill Bradley
Lyndon LaRouche
Paul Wellstone
Recount
Key figures
  • Katherine Harris
  • Jeb Bush
  • David Boies
  • Theodore Olson
  • James Baker
  • Ron Klain
  • Warren Christopher
  • Michael Whouley
  • Benjamin Ginsberg
  • Bob Butterworth
  • Joe Allbaugh
  • Mac Stipanovic
  • Craig Waters
  • Theresa LePore
  • Carol Roberts
Election day
  • Florida Central Voter File (scrub list)
  • Volusia error
  • Chad
  • Butterfly ballot
Aftermath and
legal proceedings
  • Florida election recount
  • Brooks Brothers riot
  • Palm Beach County Canvassing Board v. Harris (Harris I)
  • Gore v. Harris (Harris II)
  • Bush v. Gore
Films
  • Recount (2008)
  • Bush Family Fortunes (2004)
  • Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election (2002)
Third party and independent candidates
Constitution Party
  • Convention
Nominee
Howard Phillips
VP nominee
Curtis Frazier
Candidates
Herb Titus
Green Party
  • Convention
Nominee
Ralph Nader (campaign)
VP nominee
Winona LaDuke
Candidates
Jello Biafra
Stephen Gaskin
Joel Kovel
Libertarian Party
  • Convention
Nominee
Harry Browne
VP nominee
Art Olivier
Candidates
Jacob Hornberger
Barry Hess
L. Neil Smith
Natural Law Party
Nominee
John Hagelin
VP nominee
Nat Goldhaber
Prohibition Party
Nominee
Earl Dodge
VP nominee
W. Dean Watkins
Reform Party
Nominee
Pat Buchanan
VP nominee
Ezola B. Foster
Candidates
John Hagelin
Socialist Party USA
Nominee
David McReynolds
VP nominee
Mary Cal Hollis
Socialist Workers Party
Nominee
James Harris
VP nominee
Margaret Trowe
Workers World Party
Nominee
Monica Moorehead
VP nominee
Gloria La Riva
Independent
  • Cathy Gordon Brown
  • Charles E. Collins
  • Isabell Masters
  • Joe Schriner
Other 2000 elections
House
Senate
Gubernatorial

Famous quotes containing the words bill, bradley and/or presidential:

    [My one tennis book] was very, very old. It had a picture of Bill Tilden. I looked at the picture and that was how I learned to hold the racket.
    Maria Bueno (b. 1939)

    We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount.... The world has achieved brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants.
    —Omar Bradley (1893–1981)

    Because of these convictions, I made a personal decision in the 1964 Presidential campaign to make education a fundamental issue and to put it high on the nation’s agenda. I proposed to act on my belief that regardless of a family’s financial condition, education should be available to every child in the United States—as much education as he could absorb.
    Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)