Presidential elections were held in the United States on November 5, 1996. Incumbent Democratic president Bill Clinton and his running mate, incumbent vice president Al Gore, were re-elected to a second term; they defeated the Republican ticket of former Senate majority leader Bob Dole and former secretary of housing and urban development Jack Kemp, and the Reform ticket of businessman Ross Perot and economist Pat Choate.
Clinton and Gore were re-nominated by their party with no difficulty. Meanwhile, numerous Republican candidates entered the competitive primaries, with Dole considered the early frontrunner. Dole clinched the nomination after defeating challenges by publisher Steve Forbes and paleoconservative leader Pat Buchanan. Dole's running mate was Jack Kemp, a former New York congressman and football player who had served as the housing secretary under President George H. W. Bush. Ross Perot, who had won 18.9% of the popular vote as an independent candidate in 1992, ran as the candidate of the Reform Party. Perot received less media attention in 1996 and was excluded from the presidential debates.
Clinton's chances of winning were initially considered slim in the middle of his term, as his party had lost both the House of Representatives and the Senate in 1994 for the first time in decades. He was able to regain ground as the economy began to recover from the early 1990s recession with a relatively stable world stage. Clinton tied Dole to Newt Gingrich, the arch-conservative Republican speaker of the House, and expressed concern that Republicans would increase the deficit and slash spending on popular programs like Social Security and Medicare. Dole promised an across-the-board 15% reduction in federal income taxes and labeled Clinton as a "spoiled" Baby Boomer who "never grew up" and "never sacrificed." Dole's age was a persistent issue in the election, and gaffes by Dole exacerbated the issue for his campaign.
On election day, Clinton defeated Dole by a wide margin, winning 379 electors to Dole's 159 and taking 49.2% of the national popular vote to Dole's 40.7%. As in 1992, Perot's strong candidacy held both major party candidates below 50% nationwide. As of 2026, he remains the last third party or independent candidate to receive more than 5% of the popular vote. As of 2024, this marked the last election in which the Democratic nominee won Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Tennessee, and West Virginia. It was also the last election in which the Democratic nominee won Arizona until 2020.
Background
In 1995, the Republican Party was riding high on the significant gains made in the 1994 midterm elections. In those races, the Republicans, led by whip Newt Gingrich, captured the majority of seats in the House for the first time in forty years and the majority of seats in the Senate for the first time in eight years. Gingrich became speaker of the House, while Bob Dole was elevated to Senate majority leader.
The Republicans of the 104th Congress pursued an ambitious agenda, highlighted by their Contract with America, but were often forced to compromise with Clinton, who wielded veto power. A budget impasse between Congress and the Clinton administration eventually resulted in a government shutdown. Clinton, meanwhile, was praised for signing the GOP's welfare reform, and other notable bills, but was forced to abandon his own health care plan.
Democratic Party nomination
Democratic candidates
Candidates gallery
With the advantage of incumbency, Bill Clinton's path to renomination by the Democratic Party was uneventful. At the 1996 Democratic National Convention, Clinton and incumbent Vice President Al Gore were renominated with token opposition. Formerly incarcerated fringe candidate Lyndon LaRouche won a few Arkansas delegates who were barred from the convention. Jimmy Griffin, former Mayor of Buffalo, New York, mounted a brief campaign but withdrew after a poor showing in the New Hampshire primary. Former Pennsylvania governor Bob Casey contemplated a challenge to Clinton, but health problems forced Casey to abandon a bid.
Clinton easily won primaries nationwide, with margins consistently higher than 80%.
Popular primaries vote:
Convention tally:
- Bill Clinton (inc.) – 4,277
- Not voting – 12
Republican Party nomination
Republican candidates:
- Lamar Alexander, former governor of Tennessee
- Pat Buchanan, conservative columnist from Virginia
- Bob Dole, U.S. senator from Kansas and Republican nominee for vice president of the United States in 1976
- Bob Dornan, U.S. representative from California
- Steve Forbes, newspaper and magazine publisher from New Jersey
- Phil Gramm, U.S. senator from Texas
- Alan Keyes, former U.S. ECOSOC ambassador from Maryland
- Richard Lugar, U.S. senator from Indiana
- Arlen Specter, U.S. senator from Pennsylvania
- Morry Taylor, CEO from Michigan
- Pete Wilson, governor of California
Candidates gallery
A number of Republican candidates entered the field to challenge the incumbent Democratic president, Bill Clinton.
The fragmented field of candidates debated issues such as a flat tax and other tax cut proposals, and a return to supply-side economic policies popularized by Ronald Reagan. More attention was drawn to the race by the budget stalemate in 1995 between Congress and the president, which caused temporary shutdowns and slowdowns in many areas of federal government service.
Former Secretary of Labor Lynn Martin of Illinois, who served in the United States House of Representatives from Illinois's 16th District and was the 1990 Republican U.S. Senate nominee losing to incumbent Paul Simon conducted a bid for most of 1995, but withdrew before the Iowa caucuses as polls showed her languishing far behind. She participated in a number of primary presidential debates before withdrawing. Martin's predecessor in Congress, John Anderson, had made first a Republican, then independent, presidential bid in 1980. Also, Simon, who defeated Martin for the U.S. Senate, had run for president as a Democrat in 1988.
Former U.S. Army General and future Secretary of State Colin Powell was widely courted as a potential Republican nominee. However, on November 8, 1995, Powell announced that he would not seek the nomination. Former and future Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld formed a presidential campaign exploratory committee, but declined to formally enter the race. Former Secretary of State James A. Baker III and former Secretary of Education William Bennett both flirted with bids, and both even set up exploratory committees for a number of months, but both finally declared within days of each other that they would not run.
Former Secretary of Defense and future Vice President of the United States Dick Cheney was touted by many as a possible candidate for the presidency, but he declared his intentions not to run in early 1995.
Primaries and convention
Ahead of the 1996 primary contest, Republican Leader of the United States Senate and former vice-presidential candidate Bob Dole was seen as the most likely winner. However, Steve Forbes finished first in Delaware and Arizona while paleoconservative firebrand Pat Buchanan managed early victories in Alaska and Louisiana, in addition to a strong second place in the Iowa caucuses and a surprising victory in the small but key New Hampshire primary. Buchanan's New Hampshire win alarmed the Republican "establishment" sufficiently as to provoke prominent Republicans to quickly coalesce around Dole, and Dole won every primary starting with North and South Dakota. Dole resigned his Senate seat on June 11 and the Republican National Convention formally nominated Dole on August 15, 1996, for president.
Popular primaries vote:
- Bob Dole – 8,427,601 (59.2%)
- Pat Buchanan – 3,021,935 (21.2%)
- Steve Forbes – 1,425,998 (10.0%)
- Lamar Alexander – 495,590 (3.5%)
- Alan Keyes – 449,536 (3.2%)
- Richard Lugar – 127,111 (0.9%)
- Unpledged – 123,765 (0.9%)
- Phil Gramm – 71,457 (0.5%)
- Bob Dornan – 42,141 (0.3%)
- Morry Taylor – 21,180 (0.1%)
Convention tally:
Former Representative and Housing Secretary Jack Kemp was nominated by acclamation for vice president, the following day. This was the only Republican ticket between 1980 and 2004 that did not include a member of the Bush family.
Candidates gallery
The United States Reform Party had great difficulty in finding a candidate willing to run in the general election. Lowell Weicker, Tim Penny, David Boren and Richard Lamm were among those who toyed with the notion of seeking its presidential nomination, though all but Lamm decided against it; Lamm had himself come close to withdrawing his name from consideration. Lamm designated Ed Zschau as his vice presidential candidate.
Ultimately, the Reform Party nominated its founder Ross Perot from Texas in its first election as an official political party. Although Perot easily won the nomination, his victory at the party's national convention led to a schism as supporters of Lamm accused him of rigging the vote to prevent them from casting their ballots. This faction walked out of the national convention and eventually formed their own group, the American Reform Party, and attempted to convince Lamm to run as an Independent in the general election; Lamm declined, pointing out a promise he made before running that he would respect the Party's final decision.
Economist Pat Choate was nominated for vice president.
Minor parties and independents
Parties in this section obtained ballot access in enough states to theoretically obtain the minimum number of electoral votes needed to win the election. Individuals included in this section completed one or more of the following actions: received, or formally announced their candidacy for, the presidential nomination of a third party; formally announced intention to run as an independent candidate and obtained enough ballot access to win the election; filed as a third party or non-affiliated candidate with the FEC (for other than exploratory purposes). Within each party, candidates are listed alphabetically by surname.
Libertarian Party nomination
Libertarian candidates:
The Libertarian Party nominated free-market writer and investment analyst Harry Browne from Tennessee, and selected Jo Jorgensen from South Carolina as his running mate. Browne and Jorgensen drew 485,798 votes (0.5% of the popular vote).
Green Party nomination
The Green Party of the United States drafted Ralph Nader of Connecticut as a candidate for president of the United States on the Green Party ticket. He was not formally nominated by the Green Party USA, which was, at the time, the largest national Green group; instead, he was nominated independently by various state Green parties (in some areas, he appeared on the ballot as an independent). Nader vowed to spend only $5,000 in his election campaign (to avoid having to file a financial statement with the FEC). Winona LaDuke, a Native American activist and economist from Wisconsin, was named as his running mate. In Iowa and Vermont, Anne Goeke was listed as Nader's running mate; in New Jersey it was Madelyn Hoffman and in New York it was Muriel Tillinghast.
Nader and his running mates drew 685,128 votes (0.71% of the popular vote).
Natural Law Party nomination
The Natural Law Party for a second time nominated scientist and researcher John Hagelin for president and Mike Tompkins for vice president. The party platform included preventive health care, sustainable agriculture and renewable energy technologies. During his campaigns, Hagelin favored abortion rights without public financing, campaign finance law reform, improved gun control, a flat tax, the eradication of PACs, a ban on soft money contributions, and school vouchers, and was a believer in "yogic flying."
Hagelin and Tompkins drew 113,671 votes (0.1% of the popular vote).
U.S. Taxpayers' Party nomination
The U.S. Taxpayers' Party had run its first presidential ticket in 1992, headed by Howard Phillips, who had failed to find any prominent conservative willing to take the mantle. In 1996 the situation ultimately proved the same, though Pat Buchanan for a time was widely speculated to be planning on bolting to the Taxpayers' Party should the expected Republican nominee, Senator Bob Dole, name a pro-choice running mate. When Jack Kemp, who opposed abortion, was tapped for the position Buchanan agreed to endorse the Republican ticket. Phillips again led the Taxpayers' ticket, with Herbert Titus nominated for the vice presidency.
Phillips and Titus drew 182,820 votes (0.2% of the popular vote).
General election
Campaign
Without meaningful primary opposition, Clinton was able to focus on the general election early, while Dole was forced to move to the right and spend his campaign reserves fighting off challengers. Political adviser Dick Morris urged Clinton to raise huge sums of campaign funds via soft money for an unprecedented early TV blitz of swing states promoting Clinton's agenda and record. As a result, Clinton could run a campaign through the summer defining his opponent as an aged conservative far from the mainstream before Dole was in a position to respond. Compared to the 50-year-old Clinton, then 73-year-old Dole appeared especially old and frail, as illustrated by an embarrassing fall off a stage during a campaign event in Chico, California. Dole further enhanced this contrast on September 18 when he made a reference to a no-hitter thrown the day before by Hideo Nomo of the "Brooklyn Dodgers", a team that had left Brooklyn for Los Angeles 38 years earlier. A few days later Dole would make a joke about the remark by saying, "And I'd like to congratulate the St. Louis Cardinals on winning the N.L. Central. Notice I said the St. Louis Cardinals, not the St. Louis Browns." (The Browns had left St. Louis after the 1954 season to become the Baltimore Orioles.)