1976: Pres. Ford chooses Nelson Rockefeller as his VP running mate

[sg0508]

Ford was in a tough spot given the brutal primary with Reagan and needed to earn some of the conservative support.  He did that (with Bob Dole) at the major and possibly fatal expense of losing key support in the more liberal states (at the time), such as NY, PA, etc that ultimately went to Jimmy Carter and decided the election.  Carter earned some unusual support in PA, particularly in the central part of the state and also in Long Island, NY where Republicans (at the time) used to clean up.  That may have tilted the race in his favor.

Bob Dole proved disastrous, but may have helped to hold some of the less electoral-rich states, such as the Dakotas, Oklahoma, etc, which Carter may have won had Rockefeller been the VP nominee, but Given that the GOP ticket struggled in Dole's home state of KS (with Dole on the ticket), who knows?

Usually, the cliche goes that "people vote for President and not VP", but perhaps '76 would have bucked the trend?

Bottom line, Ford lost (despite a bigtime late charge after the GOP convention from a huge deficit) by losing NY, PA, OH and a few other states that conservatives could have tipped the balance.  With NY's Rockefeller on the ticket (who was well-respected, along with the key support of former Sen. Javits), would it have made a difference?

[TX Conservative Dem]

Ford lost due to following factors:
1.) 8 years of Republican fatigue
2.) Ford pardoning Nixon in the Watergate Scandal fallout
3.) Economy was tanking
4.) Poor relationship between Ford and Capitol Hill

[MATTROSE94]

Maybe something like this:

Former Governor Jimmy Carter (D-GA)/Senator Walter Mondale (D-MN): 287 Electoral Votes 50.08%
President Gerald Ford (R-MI)/Vice-President Nelson Rockefeller (R-NY): 251 Electoral Votes 48.02%
Others (Libertarian, American Independent, Communist, Socialist Workers, Etc.): 0 Electoral Votes 0.08%

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Forgive my ignorance, but why was Dole such an awful pick? I haven't read much on the '76 campaign other than Jimmy Carter's Diary, which only has snippets about the campaign and starts after the election ended.

[TX Conservative Dem]

I've read that Cheney and Rumsfeld wanted Ford to dump Rocky from the '76 ticket.

[TX Conservative Dem]

They didn't want Bush 41 to replace Rocky as VP?

What were their reasons ?