American political campaign
The
2004 presidential campaign of
Dick Gephardt
, former
House Minority Leader
and member of the
U.S. House of Representatives
from Missouri, began on January 5, 2003 with the filing of papers with the
Federal Election Commission
that established an exploratory committee.
[2]
He formally announced his entry into the race for the Democratic nomination on February 19, 2003 in
St. Louis
,
Missouri
. The day after the Iowa caucuses, Gephardt dropped out of the race on January 20, 2004.
[3]
Background
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Richard Gephardt
did not run for re-election as
House Minority Leader
after the Democrats lost seats in the
2002 midterm Congressional elections
. He announced his
second run for president
on January 5, 2003. His successor as Minority Leader,
Nancy Pelosi
, endorsed his bid for president. Gephardt was seen by many as too old fashioned and unelectable, with his fundraising efforts behind that of former Vermont Governor
Howard Dean
and Senators
John Kerry
,
John Edwards
, and tied with
Joe Lieberman
. Furthermore, Gephardt's support of the
Iraq War
resolution hurt him among
liberal
activists. Gephardt promoted a form of
universal health care
, and was supported by a dozen labor unions, but did not have enough support to receive the endorsement of the
AFL?CIO
.
Decline
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Although Gephardt was ahead in the
Iowa caucus
throughout early 2003,
Vermont
Governor
Howard Dean
pulled ahead in the polls by August, his campaign fueled by anti-war activists. The Gephardt campaign was embarrassed by an early August
St Louis Post-Dispatch
article that revealed that 11 of 33 "Gephardt team leaders" listed on his Iowa campaign's web site were actually supporting other candidates or neutral. The race between Gephardt and Dean became negative. In the final days of the campaign, both Dean and Gephardt faded and finished third and fourth, respectively.
[4]
Endorsements
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Aftermath
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Although he dropped out of the presidential race, Gephardt was mentioned as a possible running mate for
John Kerry
. On March 7, 2004,
New Mexico
Governor
Bill Richardson
, seen as a strong possibility for the position himself, endorsed Gephardt for the Vice Presidency. "I think he's the best candidate," Richardson said of Gephardt in an interview with the
Associated Press
. "There's a good regional balance with Kerry and Gephardt."
[
citation needed
]
Nevertheless, Kerry announced that he had chosen
John Edwards
as his running mate on July 6, 2004. (On that same day, the
New York Post
published an incorrect headline stating that Gephardt had become Kerry's running mate.) Shortly after this false story broke, the headline was compared to the 1948 "
Dewey defeats Truman
" front page of the
Chicago Tribune
, which incorrectly reported the presidential election results of that year. In 2007, it was revealed in the book
No Excuses: Concessions of a Serial Campaigner
by
Bob Shrum
, who served as Kerry's campaign adviser in the
2004 United States presidential election
, that Kerry wanted to choose Gephardt as his nominee for vice president, but was convinced by Shrum and others to choose Edwards.
References
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