With the advantage of
incumbency, Bill Clinton's path to renomination by the
Democratic Party was uneventful. At the
1996 Democratic National Convention, Clinton - along with incumbent
Vice President Al Gore - was renominated following a primary race in which he faced only token opposition.
Perennial candidate Lyndon LaRouche qualified for one delegate from Virginia and one delegate from Louisiana, but the state parties refused to award him delegates and the First District Court of Appeals upheld their decision. Former
Pennsylvania governor
Bob Casey contemplated a challenge to Clinton, but health problems forced Casey to abandon a bid. That left
Jimmy Griffin, the former
mayor of Buffalo, New York, as the highest-ranking challenger still in the race. After finishing in eighth place, behind even the perennial candidates, in the New Hampshire primaries, Griffin dropped out of the race. Clinton easily won primaries nationwide, with margins consistently higher than 80%.
Roland Riemers scored a victory in the
North Dakota primary, where Clinton did not file to appear on the ballot. Backed by a loyal following, LaRouche managed to get on the ballot in most states and amassed over half a million votes nationwide in the primary. His highest percentage was 13.4% in West Virginia and received over a hundred thousand votes in California. Another notable campaign besides LaRouche's to challenge President Clinton was Chicago housewife
Elvena Lloyd-Duffie, who was reported to have outraised him at one point and got as high as 11% of the vote in Oklahoma and 7% in Louisiana. ==Candidates==