In 1996 President Bill Clinton's victory marked the first time since
(1)
that a Democratic president had been elected to a second full term.
Clinton carried (2) -
of the fifty states and won electoral
votes.
In the 1996 campaign, Clinton was the first Democratic president since
(3) not
to have a significant challenge for re-nomination.
In November 1995 (4) announced
that he would not seek the Republican Party's presidential nomination;
however, in time, a total of candidates
competed for the prize.
Although (5) had
failed to capture the Republican nomination in 1980 and in 1988, in 1996
he appeared to be the early front-runner.
Conservative columnist (6) shocked
Republicans across the country by beating their party's front-runner in
the New Hampshire primary.
On March 12, Super Tuesday, (7) swept
all seven of the key primaries, and after his victory in California on
March 26, his delegate total surpassed the 996 needed to win the nomination.
In August, Dole unveiled his economic stimulus plan; his proposal was
a (8) percent
across-the-board income tax cut.
As the Republican National Convention approached, Dole announced his
choice for his vice presidential running-mate: (9)
,
a former member of Congress from New York, former secretary of Housing
and Urban Development, and a one-time professional football player.
The choice was surprising; in the past Dole had advocated deficit reduction
rather than tax cuts, while his running-mate championed tax cuts as part
of (10) economics.
As Clinton and Dole prepared to do battle, Texas billionaire (11)
entered
the fray; he easily won the Party
nomination by a margin of two to one.
One other minor-party candidate received a fair amount of media attention
— (12) of
the Green Party.
As the last phase of the campaign got under way, it was clear that Clinton
was continuing to benefit from good news about the (13) .
Dole had been counting on the televised (14) to
enable him to catch up with Clinton, but they had failed to narrow the
gap.
On Election Day, the voter turnout was the nation's (15)
since 1924.
Perhaps the most striking feature of the 1996 election was the "(16)
";
among women, Clinton led Dole by sixteen percentage points.
The Clinton tide ran strongly in the (17) ,
, and .
The (18) remained
a very important regional base for the Republican Party, giving Dole a
solid majority of the region's electoral votes.
The (19) Party
won the important battle for control of the House of Representatives.
In the Senate, the (20) gained
two seats, increasing their margin of control.
