1992 United States Presidential Election (2025)

Bill Clinton This page is out of multiple about Bill Clinton

General Information[]

The 1992 United States presidential election was a pivotal event in American political history, marking the end of a period of Republican dominance since 1968 and the beginning of the Greatest Generation's rule. The election marked the first time an elected incumbent Republican president was defeated, and the last time a Republican candidate failed to win a second term until Donald Trump in 2020.

Bush had broken his 1988 campaign pledge not to raise taxes, but he defended himself against a primary challenge from paleoconservative commentator Pat Buchanan without losing a single contest. His popularity following his success in the Gulf War dissuaded high-profile Democratic candidates like Mario Cuomo from entering the 1992 Democratic primaries. Clinton, a leader of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, emerged as the front-runner for the Democratic nomination, winning the nomination and choosing Tennessee senator Al Gore as his running mate.

The economy had recovered from a recession in 1991, followed by 19 consecutive months of growth. However, Bush's slow growth perceptions harmed him, as he had inherited a substantial economic boom from his predecessor Ronald Reagan. Bush's greatest strength, foreign policy, was regarded as less important following the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, as well as the relatively peaceful climate in the Middle East after the Gulf War. Perot, an independent businessman, launched an independent campaign, emphasizing his opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement and his plan to reduce the national debt.

Clinton won a plurality in the popular vote and a majority of the electoral vote, breaking a streak of three consecutive Republican victories. He won states in every region of the country, including the Northeast and the West Coast, and performed well in the eastern Midwest, the Mountain West, Appalachia, and parts of the South.

Perot won 18.9% of the popular vote, the highest share of the vote won by a candidate outside of the two major parties since 1912. Although he failed to win any electoral votes, he finished second in two states and found significant support in every state, resulting in no state giving an absolute majority to any candidate except Clinton's home state of Arkansas. This is the final election to date where the Democratic nominee won less than 50% of the vote in California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont, and in which the Republican nominee won less than 50% in Alabama, Alaska, Idaho, Kansas, and Nebraska.

History[]

Nominations[]

Democratic[]

In 1992, President George H. W. Bush's approval ratings were 89%, making re-election highly likely. High-profile candidates like Mario Cuomo and Jesse Jackson refused to seek the Democratic nomination, while Senator Al Gore chose to run due to his son's injury. However, several candidates, including Tom Harkin, Paul Tsongas, Jerry Brown, Larry Agran, Bob Kerrey, Douglas Wilder, and Bill Clinton, chose to run as candidates.

Tharkin ran as a populist liberal with labor union support, while Tsongas highlighted his political independence and fiscal conservatism. Jerry Brown declared a significant reform agenda, including Congressional term limits, campaign finance reform, and the adoption of a flat income tax. Nebraska senator Bob Kerrey was an attractive candidate but made several gaffes on the campaign trail. Arkansas governor Bill Clinton positioned himself as a centrist or New Democrat, but was relatively unknown nationally before the primary season.

The primary began with Harkin winning Iowa, followed by Tsongas winning the New Hampshire primary, and then Tsongas winning the Utah and Maryland primaries. Brown won the Maine caucus, and Kerrey dropped out two days later. Clinton won the South Carolina and Wyoming primaries, and Tsongas dropped out after finishing 3rd in Michigan.

Brown began to pick up steam, scoring surprising wins in Connecticut, Vermont, and Alaska. As the race moved to the primaries in New York and Wisconsin, Brown took the lead in polls in both states. He made a serious gaffe by announcing that he would consider Reverend Jesse Jackson as a vice presidential candidate, which offended many Jewish people.

Clinton won dramatically in New York (41%–26%) and closely in Wisconsin (37%–34%), and secured the delegates needed to lock the nomination. The convention met in New York City, with Bill Clinton choosing Al Gore as his running mate on July 9, 1992. Gore served to balance the ticket by being perceived as strong on family values and environmental issues, while Clinton was not.

Republican[]

Pat Buchanan, a palaeoconservative journalist, was the primary opponent of President Bush in the 1992 New Hampshire primary. Despite Buchanan's best showing, Bush won by a 53-38% margin. The Republican Party easily won renomination with President George H.W. Bush and Vice President Dan Quayle. However, the opposition forced Bush to move further to the right and incorporate socially conservative planks into the party platform. Buchanan's prime time address at the Republican National Convention in Houston, Texas, and his "Culture War" speech alienated Liberal Republicans. With intense pressure on Buchanan delegates, the tally for president went as follows: George H.W

Independent[]

The independent candidacy of billionaire Texan Ross Perot was fueled by public concern about the federal budget deficit and fears of professional politicians. Perot campaigned against the North American Free Trade Agreement and national debt, gaining support from 39% of voters in June. However, his credibility was damaged when he dropped out of the presidential contest in July and re-entered, claiming his withdrawal was due to Republican operatives disrupting his daughter's wedding. Perot and retired Vice Admiral James Stockdale drew 19,743,821 votes, representing 19% of the popular vote. Perot's actions damaged his credibility and led to his eventual withdrawal from the race.

General[]

In 1992, after Bill Clinton secured the Democratic Party's nomination, polls showed Ross Perot leading the race, followed by President Bush and Clinton in third place. As the economy deteriorated and the President's approval rating declined, Democrats rallied around their nominee, choosing Al Gore as his running mate. As Governor Clinton's nomination acceptance speech approached, Ross Perot dropped out of the race, believing that staying in the race with a "revitalized Democratic Party" would cause the race to be decided by the United States House of Representatives.

Clinton's acceptance speech promised to bring a "new covenant" to America and work to heal the gap between the rich and the poor during the Reagan/Bush years. The Clinton campaign received the biggest convention "bounce" in history, bringing him from 25 percent in the spring to 55 percent versus Bush's 31%.

After the convention, Clinton and Gore began a bus tour around the United States, while the Bush/Quayle campaign began to criticize Clinton's character, highlighting accusations of infidelity and draft dodging. The Bush campaign emphasized its foreign policy successes, such as Desert Storm and the end of the Cold War, and contrasted his military service to Clinton's lack thereof.

At the 1992 Republican National Convention in Houston, Texas, Bush's primary campaign opponent Pat Buchanan gave his famous "culture war" speech, criticizing Clinton's and Gore's social progressiveness and voicing skepticism on his "New Democrat" brand. After accepting his renomination, the campaign continued with a lopsided lead for Clinton through September, until Ross Perot decided to re-enter the race.

During the campaign, Clinton faced allegations of dodged the Vietnam War draft, using marijuana, meeting communists on a Russian trip, being a philanderer, and having a long-term extramarital affair with Gennifer Flowers. Clinton denied these allegations and claimed he did not inhale the drug. Bush accused Clinton of meeting communists on a student trip to Russia.

Results[]

Bill Clinton won the election to serve as the 42nd president of the United States on November 3, 1992, by a wide margin in the Electoral College. He received 43% of the popular vote against Bush's 37.4% and Perot's 18.9%. This was the first time since 1968 that a candidate won the White House with under 50% of the popular vote. Only Washington, D.C., and Clinton's home state of Arkansas gave the majority of their votes to a single candidate in the entire country; the rest were won by pluralities of the vote. Clinton was the first Democrat since 1964 to win a majority of states.

Despite receiving roughly 3,100,815 more votes than Democratic nominee Michael Dukakis had four years earlier, the Democrats recorded a 2.7 percentage point decrease in their share of the popular vote compared to 1988 due to the higher turnout. Clinton's 43% share of the popular vote was the second-lowest for any winning candidate in the 20th century after Woodrow Wilson in 1912 (41.8%). President Bush's 37.4% was the lowest percentage total for a sitting president seeking re-election since William Howard Taft, also in 1912. 1992 was a three-way race, and it was the lowest percentage for a major-party candidate since Alf Landon received 36.5% of the vote in 1936. Bush had a lower percentage of the popular vote than even Herbert Hoover, who was defeated in 1932 (39.7%).

Independent candidate Ross Perot received 19,743,821 with 18.9% of the popular vote. The billionaire used his own money to advertise extensively and is the only non-major party candidate and the only non-party affiliated candidate ever allowed into the nationally televised presidential debates with both major party candidates. Perot's 18.9% of the popular vote made him the most successful non-major party presidential candidate in terms of popular vote since Theodore Roosevelt in the 1912 election.

Effect[]

The 2008 US presidential election was a pivotal moment in American history, marked by a series of events that shaped the political landscape. The campaign began with an economic slowdown, with 75% of voters believing their personal finances were in poor shape, and 63% believing their personal finances were better or the same as four years ago. Bush's decision to accept a tax increase negatively affected his re-election bid, leading to a budget compromise with Congress which raised taxes and reduced the federal budget deficit. Clinton effectively condemned the tax increase, using Democratic TV ads showing a clip of Bush's 1988 acceptance speech.

The end of the Cold War allowed old rivalries among conservatives to re-emerge, leading to a decline in conservative turnout. The election was compared to the 1945 United Kingdom general election, where Winston Churchill, a respected conservative wartime leader, was voted out once the conflict ended. Unlike Bush, Clinton managed to unite his ideologically diverse party behind his candidacy, even when its different wings conflicted. He attacked Sister Souljah, made clear his support of the death penalty, championed making school uniforms in public schools a requirement, and had strong connections to African Americans.

The effect of Ross Perot's candidacy has been a contentious point of debate for many years. Republicans argue that Perot acted as a spoiler, causing Bush to lose the election. However, exit polls show that Perot siphoned votes nearly equally among Bush and Clinton, and roughly two-thirds of those voters who cited Bush's broken "No New Taxes" pledge as "very important" voted for Bill Clinton.

Perot gained relatively little support in the Southern states and had the best showing in states with few electoral votes. NAFTA played a role in Perot's support, and Perot voters were relatively moderate on hot-button social issues. A 1999 study estimated that Perot's candidacy hurt the Clinton campaign, reducing Clinton's margin of victory over Bush by seven percentage points.

Attitudes toward abortion significantly influenced the vote, as pro-choice Republicans defected from Bush.

The 1992 election was a significant political realignment, as it marked the end of an era where the Republican Party had controlled the White House for 12 consecutive years and 20 of the previous 24 years. Clinton's election ended this era by giving Democrats full control of the legislative and executive branches of the federal government, including both houses of U.S. Congress and the presidency. However, this did not last long, as the Republicans won control of both the House and Senate in 1994.

Clinton became the first Democratic president since Franklin D. Roosevelt to serve two full terms in the White House and the first to leave office at the end of his second full term since Woodrow Wilson. The election made the Democratic Party dominant in presidential elections in the Northeast, the Great Lakes region, and the West Coast, where many states had previously been either swing states or Republican-leaning. Clinton picked up several states that went Republican in 1988, which have remained in the Democratic column ever since: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, most of Maine, Maryland, New Jersey, and Vermont.

New Jersey narrowly defeated Bush in New Jersey, which had voted for the Republican nominee all but twice since 1948. Clinton later won the state in 1996 by eighteen points, and California, which had been a Republican stronghold since 1952, was now trending Democratic.

Clinton, a native Southerner, was able to carry several states in the South that the GOP had won for much of the past two decades, but only won four of eleven former Confederate states, reflecting the final shift of the South to the Republican Party.