Caucuses and Primaries 2008
Gravel did not compete in the initial January 3, 2008 vote, the Iowa caucuses, choosing to focus on the New Hampshire primary instead, and received no Iowa state delegates. Nevertheless, he was still subjected to a false report from Keith Olbermann of MSNBC that he had pulled out of the race afterward, as had fellow Democratic candidates Chris Dodd and Joe Biden. Later that night, Gravel's campaign issued a press release and YouTube video denying this and making it clear that Gravel intends to continue his campaign and that he does not intend to drop out of the race for presidency. Keith Olbermann later apologized to the Gravel campaign stating that a man named Alex Colvin, Gravel's press secretary, contacted MSNBC news at approximately 11:30 PM. MSNBC double-checked the source and believed the man was who he said he was, and was subsequently read on the air.
Gravel did focus much of his attention on the second 2008 vote, the New Hampshire primary held on January 8, and gained some media attention for a pre-election appearance at Phillips Exeter Academy where he told students that using marijuana was safer than drinking alcohol. In the primary he received 402 votes out of some 280,000 cast, or 0.14 percent. Gravel said he would take some time off from campaigning to deal with a respiratory infection. He subsequently resumed campaigning.
On January 15, 2008, Gravel received 2,363 votes out of 593,837 votes cast in the Michigan primary, or 0.40 percent. Campaigning was light in the Democratic primary due to an intra-party dispute removing several top candidates' names from the ballot.
Gravel did not reach viability in any of the Nevada caucuses in the state on January 19, 2008, and as a result, received no delegates.
On January 26, 2008, Gravel received 214 votes out of 532,468 votes cast in the South Carolina primary, or 0.04 percent.
On January 29, 2008, Gravel finished 8th in the Florida primary, with a little over 5,000 votes. He finished behind 4 candidates who had already withdrawn. This primary too was affected by an intra-party dispute causing several candidates not to campaign.
By the end of January 2008, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Gravel were the only remaining Democrats from the initial debates still running. Gravel vowed to stay in the presidential campaign until November.
On March 11, 2008, Gravel continued to remain in the Democratic race but additionally endorsed a Green Party candidate for president, Jesse Johnson, saying he wanted to help Johnson prevail against Green Party rivals Cynthia McKinney and Ralph Nader. As March neared a close, Gravel had almost no fundraising and was only on the ballot in one of the next ten Democratic primaries.
Read more about this topic: Mike Gravel Presidential Campaign, 2008