Presidential primaries and caucuses were organized by the Democratic Party to select delegates to the 2004 Democratic National Convention to determine the party's nominee for president in the 2004 election.
Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts won the nomination by securing more than the required 2,162 delegates on March 11, 2004. He was formally nominated by the Democratic National Convention on July 29, 2004, in Boston. Kerry went on to lose the general election on November 2 to incumbent Republican President George W. Bush.
Candidates
Withdrew during primaries
The following candidates received more than 1% of the national popular vote or were included in multiple major national polls:
Primary race overview
Ten candidates vied for the nomination, including Senators John Kerry and John Edwards, former Governor of Vermont Howard Dean, and retired four-star general Wesley Clark. For most of 2003, Dean had been the apparent front-runner for the nomination, performing strongly in most polls and leading the race in fund-raising. However, Kerry won the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary, which gave him enough momentum to carry most of the remaining states.
Election issues
According to exit polls taking during the Iowa caucuses, the top four issues were ranked as follows:
- Economy/Jobs (29% of respondents)
- Health Care/Medicine (28% of respondents)
- The war in Iraq (14% of respondents)
- Education (14% of respondents)
Economy
Despite being characterized by many as an election on the Iraq War, the economy and jobs were repeatedly cited as voters' top or one of top three concerns during the course of the primary season. In Iowa, of those who cited the economy as their most important issue, 34% supported Kerry, while 33% supported Edwards, with Dean trailing at 16% and Gephardt at 12%.
Eventual nominee John Kerry, much like other Democrats, adopted policy stances of tax cuts for the middle class, increased spending for Social Security, and assisting small businesses. On the aspect of job creation, Kerry strongly supported the creation and safety of infrastructure-related jobs, like those in the railroad industry. During the course of the primary Kerry continued to advocate positions such as fiscal responsibility and end state fiscal crises by giving states increased fiscal aid.
Runner-up John Edwards ran a position of support for the middle class as well as budget caps and enforcement. Strongly opposing Social Security privatization, and interested in middle class tax cuts, Edwards's main economic theme was support for the middle class, touting his own struggles as the son of a poor mill worker in South Carolina. Another major component of Edwards's message was to be able to reinstate fiscal responsibility.
Howard Dean, despite taking many of the same positions of his rivals including Edwards and Kerry, had a starkly different approach on the issue of Social Security and tax cuts. On taxes, Dean favored repealing the Bush tax cuts not only for the wealthiest of Americans as Edwards and Kerry proposed, but for all, including middle and lower classes.
Iraq War
After the September 11 attacks, the Bush administration argued that the need to remove Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq had now become urgent. Over the course of several months, Bush presented several premises for war, but the turning point was the allegation that Saddam's regime had tried to acquire nuclear material and had not properly accounted for biological and chemical material it was known to have possessed, potential weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in violation of U.N. sanctions. This situation escalated to the point that the United States assembled a group of about forty nations, including the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, and Poland, which Bush called the "coalition of the willing", to invade Iraq without UN authorization.
The coalition invaded Iraq on March 20, 2003. Most contenders for the nomination were supportive of the effort. Only Dean and Kucinich firmly questioned the aims and tactics of the administration, setting themselves apart in the eyes of war protesters. Kerry, who had voted in favor of coalition invasion, said Bush had “failed miserably” in building that coalition and that "We need a regime change not just in Iraq. We need a regime change here in the United States." Republicans criticized Kerry for speaking out against a wartime president.
The invasion was swift, with the collapse of the Iraq government and the military of Iraq in about three weeks. The oil infrastructure of Iraq was rapidly secured with limited damage in that time. On May 1, George W. Bush landed on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, where he gave a speech announcing the end of major combat in the Iraq war. Clearly visible in the background was a banner stating "Mission Accomplished". Bush's landing was criticized by opponents as being overly theatrical and expensive. The banner, made by White House personnel (according to a CNN story:) and placed there by the U.S. Navy, was criticized as premature. Nonetheless, Bush's approval rating in the month of May rode at 66%, according to a CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll.
On May 3, 2003, Democrats met at the University of South Carolina in the first formal debate between the nine challengers for the nomination. The candidates disagreed on the Iraq War, health insurance and President Bush's tax cuts, but were united in their criticism of Bush's handling of the economy.
Dean emerges as front-runner
On May 31, 2002, Howard Dean formed a presidential exploratory committee. Though this was almost two years before the Iowa caucus, Dean hoped the early start would give him some much needed name recognition. As the governor of a small state, Dean was not well known outside of New England.
In December of that year, John Kerry announced on NBC's Meet the Press his plans to form an exploratory committee for a possible 2004 presidential run (a formality usually indicating an official run), anticipating a formal announcement "down the road some months". Kerry's experience as a decorated Vietnam veteran generated some excitement among Democrats tired of being on the defensive about their candidates' suitability in the role of "commander in chief".
Two weeks later, former vice president and 2000 Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore announced on the CBS program 60 Minutes that he would not seek election to the presidency in 2004. Gore had recently wrapped up a nationwide book tour and had been widely expected to run.
Other potential candidates were likely waiting to see what Gore's plans were, and thus the floodgates opened in January 2003. Senator Joe Lieberman, Gore's 2000 vice presidential running mate, had previously promised not to run should Gore seek their party's nomination and was willing to be Gore's running mate again. Freed from that obligation, Lieberman announced his intention to run. Additionally, many other candidates announced their intention to form committees: Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, Representative Dick Gephardt of Missouri, and Reverend Al Sharpton of New York. In February, more candidates announced their intention to run: former Senator from Illinois Carol Moseley Braun, Representative from Ohio Dennis Kucinich, and Senator Bob Graham of Florida.
There were other potential candidates for whom some speculation was buzzing about a potential run. These candidates felt it necessary to officially state that they would not seek the party nomination. These included Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, Senator Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, and former U.S. Senator Gary Hart from Colorado.
In April, Democratic fund-raising totals for the first quarter of 2003 were reported. Edwards raised $7.4 million, Kerry raised $7.0 million, Gephardt raised $3.5 million, Lieberman raised $3.0 million, Dean raised $2.6 million, Graham raised $1.1 million, and Kucinich and Moseley Braun raised less than $1 million each.
In June 2003, Dean aired the first television advertising of the 2004 campaign, spending more than $300,000. During that time, he formally announced his run for president, filing to form a presidential election campaign with the Federal Election Commission (FEC). Later that month, liberal advocacy website MoveOn held the first ever online Democratic "primary", which lasted just over 48 hours. It was an unofficial and nonbinding affair, but with important symbolic and financial value. Of 317,647 votes, Dean received 44%, Kucinich 24%, and Kerry 16%. Had any candidate received 50% of the vote, they would have received MoveOn's endorsement and financial support. Instead, MoveOn supported all the candidates.
In July, the Democratic fund-raising numbers for the second quarter of 2003 were reported and announced. Dean surprised many by raising $7.5 million, while Kerry raised $6 million and Edwards and Lieberman raised roughly $5 million each. Dean's strength as a fund-raiser was attributed mainly to his innovative embrace of the Internet for campaigning. The majority of his donations came from individual Dean supporters, who came to be known as Deanites, or, more commonly, Deaniacs. His campaign's innovative use of the Internet helped to build a strongly supportive grassroots constituency, much of which remained intensely loyal to him long after the end of his candidacy.
By the autumn of 2003, Dean had become the apparent front-runner for the Democratic nomination, performing strongly in most polls. Generally regarded as a pragmatic centrist during his time as governor, Dean emerged during his presidential campaign as something of a populist, denouncing the policies of the Bush administration (especially the 2003 invasion of Iraq) as well as fellow Democrats, who, in his view, failed to strongly oppose them.
During his presidential campaign, critics on the right labeled Dean's political views as those of an extreme liberal; however, in liberal Vermont, Dean, long known as a staunch advocate of fiscal restraint, was regarded as a moderate. Many critics on the left, who supported fellow Dennis Kucinich or independent Ralph Nader, charged that, at heart, Dean was a "Rockefeller Republican"—socially liberal, while fiscally conservative.
Wesley Clark enters
Over the summer of 2003, several organized groups began a nationwide campaign to "draft" retired four-star general Wesley Clark for the Democratic Party's nomination for the 2004 presidential election. On August 13, CNN] showed a commercial by one of these groups and interviewed Clark. He disavowed any connection with the "Draft Clark" groups, but said he had been considering his position and that within a few weeks he would likely make public his decision on whether to
run. He also fueled speculation with a television interview in which he first declared himself a Democrat.
On September 17, 2003, in Little Rock, Arkansas, Clark announced his intention to run for the Democratic Party nomination, becoming the tenth and last Democrat to do so (coming many months after the others): "My name is Wes Clark. I am from Little Rock, Arkansas, and I am here to announce that I intend to seek the presidency of the United States of America." He said, "We're going to run a campaign that will move this country forward, not back."
His campaign focused on themes of leadership and patriotism; early campaign ads relied heavily on biography. His late start left him with relatively few detailed policy proposals. This weakness was apparent in his first few debates, although he soon presented a range of position papers, including a major tax-relief plan. Nevertheless, many Democrats flocked to his campaign. They were drawn by his military background, and saw such foreign policy credentials as a valuable asset in challenging George W. Bush after the September 11 attacks. Advisors and supporters portrayed him as more electable than Howard Dean, who was still the front-runner for the party's nomination. Despite the burst of enthusiasm for Clark in late 2003, Dean maintained a strong lead in the polls for the latter half of the year. Clark's only victory was in the Oklahoma primary on February 3.