1992 presidential primaries Buchanan was highly critical of the foreign and economic policies of the
George H.W. Bush administration, particularly Bush's breaking of his 1988 "
Read my lips: no new taxes" pledge. In 1990, Buchanan published a newsletter called
Patrick J. Buchanan: From the Right; it sent subscribers a bumper sticker reading: "Read Our Lips! No new taxes." In the
1992 Republican Party presidential primaries, Buchanan challenged Bush in his bid for re-nomination by the Republican Party, launching his campaign in December 1991 chaired by
William von Raab. Buchanan failed to win any primaries, but finished a strong second in the New Hampshire primary and was regarded as forcing Bush to walk back his economic policies. The Buchanan campaign ran a number of radio and TV spots criticizing Bush's policies; in one, Buchanan accused Bush of being a "trade wimp", while another attacked him for presiding over the
National Endowment of the Arts, which he said "invested our tax dollars in pornographic and blasphemous art too shocking to show." In 1992, Buchanan explained his reasons for challenging the incumbent, President
George H. W. Bush: Buchanan ran on a platform of
immigration reduction and
social conservatism, including opposition to
multiculturalism,
abortion, and
gay rights. Buchanan challenged Bush (whose popularity was waning) when he won 38% of the
New Hampshire primary. In the primary elections, Buchanan garnered three million total votes or 23% of the vote. Buchanan later threw his support behind Bush and delivered an address at the
1992 Republican National Convention, which became known as the
culture war speech, in which he described "a religious war going on in our country for the soul of America." In the speech, he said of
Bill and
Hillary Clinton: Buchanan also said, in reference to the then recently held
1992 Democratic National Convention, "Like many of you last month, I watched that giant masquerade ball at
Madison Square Garden—where 20,000
radicals and
liberals came dressed up as
moderates and
centrists—in the greatest single exhibition of cross-dressing in American political history." The contents of Buchanan's speech prompted his detractors to claim that the speech alienated moderate voters from the
Bush-Quayle ticket. The newspaper columnist
Molly Ivins wrote: "Many people did not care for Pat Buchanan's speech; it probably sounded better in the original German."
After the 1992 campaign After the campaign, Buchanan returned to
Crossfire,
The McLaughlin Group, and his column. To promote the principles of
federalism, traditional values, and anti-intervention, he founded The American Cause, a conservative educational foundation, in 1993. His sister Angela serves as the
Vienna,
VA-based foundation's president and Pat is its chairman. Buchanan returned to radio as host of
Buchanan and Company, a three-hour talk show for
Mutual Broadcasting System on July 5, 1993. It pitted him against liberal co-hosts, including
Barry Lynn,
Bob Beckel, and
Chris Matthews, in a time slot opposite
Rush Limbaugh's show. To launch his 1996 campaign, Buchanan left the program on March 20, 1995.
1996 presidential primaries Buchanan ran for the Republican nomination again in 1996. He was endorsed by conservative
Phyllis Schlafly, and others. In February, the liberal
Center for Public Integrity issued a report claiming Buchanan's presidential campaign co-chairman,
Larry Pratt, appeared at two meetings organized by
white supremacist and
militia leaders. Pratt denied any ties to these individuals, calling the report an orchestrated smear before the New Hampshire primary. Buchanan told the conservative
Manchester Union Leader he believed Pratt. Pratt took a leave of absence "to answer these charges," "so as not to have distraction in the campaign." In the February
New Hampshire primary, Buchanan defeated front-runner
Bob Dole by about 3,000 votes. Buchanan won three other states (
Alaska,
Missouri, and
Louisiana), and finished only slightly behind Dole in the
Iowa caucus. His insurgent campaign used his soaring rhetoric to mobilize grass-roots right-wing opinion against what he saw as the bland
Washington establishment (personified by Dole) which he believed had controlled the party for years. At a rally later in
Nashua, he said: In the
Super Tuesday primaries Dole defeated Buchanan by large margins. Having collected only 21%, or 3.1 million, of the total votes in Republican primaries, Buchanan suspended his campaign in March. He declared that, if Dole were to choose a
pro-choice running mate, he would run as the US Taxpayers Party (now
Constitution Party) candidate. Dole chose
Jack Kemp, and he received Buchanan's endorsement.
After the 1996 campaign After the campaign, Buchanan returned to
Crossfire,
The McLaughlin Group, and his column. He also began a series of books with 1998's
The Great Betrayal.
2000 presidential campaign in the
2000 presidential election Buchanan announced his departure from the Republican Party in October 1999, disparaging them (along with the Democrats) as a "
beltway party." He sought the nomination of the
Reform Party. Many reformers backed
Iowa physicist
John Hagelin, whose platform was based on
Transcendental Meditation. Party founder
Ross Perot did not endorse either candidate for the Reform Party's nomination. (In late October 2000, Perot publicly endorsed
George W. Bush, but Perot's 1996 running-mate,
Pat Choate, would go on to endorse Buchanan.) Supporters of Hagelin charged the results of the party's open primary, which favored Buchanan by a wide margin, were "tainted." The Reform Party divisions led to dual conventions being held simultaneously in separate areas of the
Long Beach Convention Center complex. Both conventions' delegates ignored the primary ballots and voted to nominate their presidential candidates from the floor, similar to the Democratic and Republican conventions. One convention nominated Buchanan while the other backed Hagelin, with each camp claiming to be the legitimate Reform Party. Ultimately, when the
Federal Elections Commission ruled Buchanan was to receive ballot status as the Reform candidate, as well as about $12.6 million in federal campaign funds secured by Perot's showing in the
1996 election, Buchanan won the nomination. In his acceptance speech, Buchanan proposed
US withdrawal from the United Nations and expelling the
United Nations Headquarters from New York, abolishing the
Internal Revenue Service,
Department of Education,
Department of Energy,
Department of Housing and Urban Development,
taxes on inheritance and
capital gains, and
affirmative action programs. As his running mate, Buchanan chose
Ezola B. Foster, an African American activist and retired teacher from Los Angeles. Buchanan was supported in this election run by future
Socialist Party USA presidential candidate
Brian Moore, who said in 2008 he supported Buchanan in 2000 because "he was for fair trade over
free trade. He had some
progressive positions that I thought would be helpful to the common man." On August 19, the
New York Right to Life Party, in convention, chose Buchanan as their nominee, with 90% of the districts voting for him. In a campaign speech at
Bob Jones University in
Greenville, South Carolina, Buchanan attempted to rally his conservative base: In the
2000 presidential election, Buchanan finished fourth with 449,895 votes, 0.4% of the popular vote. (Hagelin garnered 0.1% as the
Natural Law Party candidate.) In
Palm Beach County, Florida, Buchanan received 3,407 voteswhich some saw as inconsistent with
Palm Beach County's liberal leanings, its large Jewish population and his showing in the rest of the state. Bush spokesman
Ari Fleischer stated, "Palm Beach county is a Pat Buchanan stronghold and that's why Pat Buchanan received 3,407 votes there." Reform Party officials strongly disagreed, estimating the number of supporters in the county at between 400 and 500. Appearing on
The Today Show, Buchanan said: "When I took one look at that ballot on
Election Night ... it's very easy for me to see how someone could have voted for me in the belief they voted for
Al Gore". Palm Beach County's
butterfly ballot is credited with misdirecting over 2,000 votes from Al Gore to Pat Buchanan, tipping Florida — and the 2000 U.S. presidential election — to George W. Bush. Some observers said his campaign was aimed at spreading his message beyond his white conservative and
populist base, while his views had not changed.
Later presidential elections Following the 2000 election, Reform Party members urged Buchanan to take an active role within the party. Buchanan declined, though he did attend their 2001 convention. In the next few years, he identified himself as a political independent, choosing not to align himself with what he viewed as the
neo-conservative Republican party leadership. Prior to the
2004 election, Buchanan announced he once again identified himself as a Republican, declared that he had no interest in ever running for president again, and reluctantly endorsed
Bush's 2004 reelection, writing: "Bush is right on taxes, judges, sovereignty, and values.
Kerry is right on nothing". Buchanan also endorsed Republican presidential candidate
Mitt Romney in
2012, stating in an article that "Obama offers more of the stalemate America has gone through for the past two years" while "Romney alone offers a possibility of hope and change." Buchanan supported the nomination of
Donald Trump, who ran on many of the same positions that Buchanan ran on twenty years prior, as Republican presidential candidate for the
2016 presidential election. Buchanan further supported Trump in
2020 and
2024. ==Later media activities==