| Election Name: | 1992 Republican Party presidential primaries |
| Country: | United States |
| Type: | primary |
| Ongoing: | no |
| Previous Election: | 1988 Republican Party presidential primaries |
| Previous Year: | 1988 |
| Next Election: | 1996 Republican Party presidential primaries |
| Next Year: | 1996 |
| Election Date: | February 18 to June 9, 1992 |
| Votes For Election: | 2,209 delegates to the Republican National Convention |
| Needed Votes: | 1,105 delegate[1] |
| Party Name: | no |
| Candidate1: | George H. W. Bush |
| Colour1: | a59400 |
| Home State1: | Texas |
| States Carried1: | 51 |
| Popular Vote1: | 9,199,463 |
| Percentage1: | 72.8% |
| Delegate Count1: | 1,544 |
| Candidate2: | Pat Buchanan |
| Colour2: | 668c63 |
| Home State2: | Virginia |
| States Carried2: | 0 |
| Popular Vote2: | 2,899,488 |
| Percentage2: | 23.0% |
| Delegate Count2: | 367 |
| Republican nominee | |
| Before Election: | George H. W. Bush |
| After Election: | George H. W. Bush |
Presidential primaries and caucuses of the Republican Party took place within all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia between February 18 to June 9, 1992. The contests chose the 2,277 delegates sent to the national convention in Houston, Texas from August 17 to August 20, 1992, who selected the Republican Party's nominees for president and vice president in the 1992 United States presidential election and approved the party's platform. President George H. W. Bush was again selected as the nominee. The Republican ticket of President Bush and Vice President Dan Quayle went on to lose the general election to the Democratic ticket of Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton and Tennessee Senator Al Gore.
President George H. W. Bush was challenged by conservative commentator Pat Buchanan, and during the early counting of the votes at the New Hampshire primary, it appeared that the president might actually lose. However, Buchanan faded by the end of the evening, and Bush won the rest of the primaries. Bush's margins in many of the primaries were not as large as expected, and led to the rise of Ross Perot as an independent candidate.
Republican Louisiana State Representative and former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke also ran in a number of primaries, but he did not receive any delegates. Former Governor Harold Stassen of Minnesota also made a quixotic bid for support in the Minnesota primary, winning enough votes to entitle him to one delegate, but was later denied his single vote by machinations at the Minnesota Republican Party's 1992 state convention.
See also: 1992 New Hampshire Republican presidential primary.
As Buchanan's candidacy relied heavily on a strong showing in the New Hampshire primary, President Bush made New Hampshire a focal point in his reelection bid. However, New Hampshire still remained a pivotal base for Buchanan's primary campaign.
Because Bush was widely perceived to have broken his "read my lips" pledge, Buchanan found support in the economically battered and conservative state of New Hampshire. Making Bush's tax-hikes a central theme of his campaign, Buchanan enjoyed healthy grass-roots support despite lagging behind the president in pre-primary polling.
Bush countered the threat posed by Buchanan by touring New Hampshire himself. He memorably told an audience at an Exeter town hall: "Message: I care".[2] Some sources claim that this was the result of Bush mistakenly reading a cue card aloud.[3]
On primary night, President Bush carried New Hampshire with 53% of the vote. Buchanan finished second with 38% of the vote.[4]
Despite many in the Bush campaign attempting to push Buchanan out of the race, the strong showing made the Buchanan campaign hope for an outpouring of campaign contributions which galvanized the campaign into making efforts to pull out strong showings such as in the Georgia primary.
Despite an impressive showing, Buchanan's campaign never attracted serious opposition to President Bush in most contests. Most of Buchanan's "victories" were larger-than-expected showings that were still considered landslide Bush wins by most of the media. Still, the fact that Buchanan received more than two million votes nationwide prognosticated trouble for Bush in the general election.
| Candidate | Most recent office | Home State | data-sort-type="date" | CampaignWithdrawal date | Popular vote | Contests won | Running mate | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| George H. W. Bush | President of the United States (1989–1993) | Texas | data-sort-value="0" | (Campaign) Secured nomination: May 5, 1992 | data-sort-value="14,015,993" | 9,199,463 (72.84%) | data-sort-value="44" | 51 | Dan Quayle | |||
| Candidate | Most recent office | Home State | data-sort-type="date" | CampaignWithdrawal date | Popular vote | Contests won | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pat Buchanan | White House Communications Director (1985–1987) | Virginia | data-sort-value="0" | (Campaign) | data-sort-value="14,015,993" | 2,899,488 (22.96%) | data-sort-value="44" | N/A | ||
| David Duke | Member of the Louisiana House of Representatives (1989–1992) | Louisiana | (Campaign) | data-sort-value="14,015,993" | 119,115 (0.94%) | data-sort-value="44" | N/A | |||
| Pat Paulsen | Comedian | California | data-sort-value="14,015,993" | 10,984 (0.09%) | data-sort-value="44" | N/A | ||||
| Harold Stassen | Director of the United States Foreign Operations Administration (1953–1955) | Minnesota | data-sort-value="14,015,993" | 8,099 (0.06%) | data-sort-value="44" | N/A | ||||
| Jack Fellure | Former Engineer and Perennial Candidate | West Virginia | data-sort-value="14,015,993" | 6,296 (0.05%) | data-sort-value="44" | N/A | ||||
| Candidate | Campaign committee | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Raised | Spent | |||||||
| [5] | $104,974,415.00 | $31,802,276.00 | $31,711,102.00 | $65,898,513.00 | $107,637,852.00 | |||
| [6] | $14,933,082.00 | $7,232,943.00 | $7,206,793.00 | $5,351,770.00 | $14,591,679.00 | |||
| [7] | $372,146.00 | $221,854.00 | $221,945.00 | $0.00 | $457,449.00 | |||
| [8] | $46,748.00 | $1,260.00 | $1,425.00 | $0.00 | $47,559.00 | |||
| Date[10] [11] | Total pledged delegates[12] | Contest | Delegates won and popular vote | Total | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| George H. W. Bush | Pat Buchanan | Others | |||||
| February 10 | 0 | Iowa caucus[13] | Cancelled. | ||||
| February 18 | 23 | New Hampshire primary[14] | 14 92,271 (53.2%) | 9 65,106 (37.5%) | 3,779 (2.3%) | ||
| February 19 | 22 | South Dakota primary[15] [16] | 14 30,964 (69.3%) | — | 5 13,707 (30.68%) | ||
| March 3 (131) | 37 | Colorado primary[17] | 26 132,049 (68.2%) | 11 58,730 (30.3%) | 2,957 (1.53%) | ||
| 42 | Maryland primary | 42 168,898 (69.9%) | 72,701 (30.1%) | — | |||
| 52 | Georgia primary[18] | 52 291,905 (64.3%) | 162,085 (35.7%) | — | |||
| March 7 | 36 | South Carolina primary[19] [20] | 36 99,558 (66.9%) | 38,247 (25.7%) | 11,035 (7.41%) | ||
| March 10 (Super Tuesday) (441) | 99 | Florida primary | 67 607,522 (68.1%) | 32 285,074 (31.9%) | – | ||
| 41 | Louisiana primary | 25 83,747 (62.0%) | 11 36,526 (27.0%) | 5 14,841 | |||
| 40 | Massachusetts primary | 28 176,868 (65.6%) | 12 74,797 (27.7%) | 24,182 | |||
| 34 | Mississippi primary | 25 111,794 (72.3%) | 6 25,891 (16.7%) | 4 17,023 (10.6%) | |||
| 38 | Oklahoma primary | 27 151,612 (69.6%) | 11 57,933 (26.6%) | 8,176 (2.6%) | |||
| 16 | Rhode Island primary | 11 9,853 (63.0%) | 5 4,967 (31.8%) | 816 (4.9%) | |||
| 49 | Tennessee primary | 38 178,216 (72.5%) | 11 54,585 (22.2%) | 12,849 (5.2%) | |||
| 124 | Texas primary | 92 556,280 (69.8%) | 32 190,572 (23.9%) | 50,294 (6.0%) | |||
| March 17 (162) | 88 | Illinois primary | 68 556,280 (76.4%) | 20 186,915 (22.5%) | 9,637 (1.2%) | ||
| 74 | Michigan primary | 54 301,948 (67.2%) | 20 112,122 (25.0%) | 35,063 (7.7%) | |||
| March 24 | 38 | Connecticut primary | 29 66,356 (66.7%) | 9 21,815 (22.0%) | 11,475 (11.4%) | ||
| April 5 | 20 | Puerto Rico primary | 20 260,200 | 1,031 | 2,104 | ||
| April 7 (205) | 31 | Kansas primary | 21 132,131 (62.0%) | 5 32,494 (14.8%) | 49,571 (20.8%) | ||
| 34 | Minnesota primary | 25 84,841 (63.9%) | 9 32,094 (24.2%) | 15,821 (8.8%) | |||
| 103 | New York [?] | 103 | – | – | |||
| 37 | Wisconsin primary | 30 364,507 (75.6%) | 7 78,516 (16.3%) | 39,225 (5.3%) | |||
| April 28 | 92 | Pennsylvania primary | 71 774,865 (76.7%) | 21 233,912 (23.2%) | — | ||
| May 5 (144) | 13 | District of Columbia primary | 11 4,265 (81.5%) | 2 970 (18.5%) | – | ||
| 20 | Delaware caucus | 20 | — | — | |||
| 52 | Indiana primary | 42 374,666 (80.1%) | 10 92,949 (19.9%) | — | |||
| 59 | North Carolina primary | 46 200,387 (70.7%) | 13 55,420 (19.5%) | 27,764 (9.8%) | |||
| May 10 | 20 | Montana primary | 14 65,176 (71.6%) | 2 10,701 (11.8%) | 3 15,098 (16.6%) | ||
| May 12 (46) | 27 | Nebraska primary | 23 156,346 (81.4%) | 4 25,847 (13.5%) | 9,905 (1.5%) | ||
| 19 | West Virginia primary | 16 99,994 (80.5%) | 3 18,067 (14.6%) | 6,096 (4.9%) | |||
| May 19 (62) | 25 | Oregon primary | 17 203,957 | 5 57,730 | 3 42,472 | ||
| 37 | Washington primary | 25 86,839 (67.0%) | 4 13,273 (10.2%) | 8 29,543 (20.8%) | |||
| May 26 (92) | 31 | Arkansas primary | 27 45,590 (83.1%) | 4 6,551 (11.9%) | 2,742 (5.0%) | ||
| 23 | Idaho primary | 15 73,297 (63.5%) | 3 15,167 (13.1%) | 5 27,038 (23.4%) | |||
| 38 | Kentucky primary | 28 75,371 (74.5%) | — | 10 25,748 (25.5%) | |||
| June 2 (439) | 41 | Alabama primary | 33 122,703 (74.3%) | 12,588 (7.6%) | 8 29,830 (18.1%) | ||
| 203 | California primary | 149 1,587,369 (73.6%) | 54 568,892 (26.4%) | — | |||
| 63 | New Jersey primary | 53 240,535 (77.5%) | 10 46,432 (15.0%) | (7.5%) | |||
| 27 | New Mexico primary | 19 55,522 (63.8%) | 7,871 (9.1%) | 8 23,574 (27.1%) | |||
| 20 | North Dakota primary | 17 39,863 (83.4%) | — | 3 7,945 (16.6%) | |||
| 85 | Ohio primary | 71 716,766 | 14 143,687 | — | |||
| Total[21] | 1,973 | 1,544 9,199,463 (72.8%) | 367 2,899,488 (23.0%) | 62 497,650 (4.2%) | 12,596,601 | ||
Popular vote result:[22]
