The Last Brokered Convention

For the first time in almost 50 years, there is talk of an open convention, replacing the beleaguered Joe Biden with a younger, more alert candidate. Biden is as beleaguered as Gerald Ford fifty years ago. Ford was so star crossed, it was joked that his vice president, Nelson Rockefeller, was not a heartbeat away from the presidency, but a “banana peel.” 

It remains to be seen how this current melodrama will play out, but in 1976, at the GOP quadrennial gathering in Kansas City, history was made, the GOP was transformed, and a revolution launched with the ascendency of one Ronald Reagan. Though Reagan came up just short in his bid to oust incumbent President Gerald Ford for the Republican nomination, he set the stage for his ultimate triumph and sweeping victory in 1980. 

Joe Biden is not Ronald Reagan—not by a long shot. Reagan has been lauded as one of our four greatest presidents, while Biden will go down as one of the four worst presidents. That is a certitude. History, according to Mark Twain, does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme. 

Gerald Ford, often referred to as “His Accidency,” ascended to the presidency not through the ballot box but by the jury box. Richard Nixon’s first vice president, Spiro Agnew, was caught dead-to-rights with his hand in the cookie jar. He had taken bribes from Maryland contractors and grocers. Even as vice president, free groceries were delivered to his residence. Agnew had few friends and fewer defenders, but he initially seemed to be leading candidate for the 1976 GOP presidential nomination. 

Agnew and his mistress, who was a member of his vice-presidential staff, were gone in short order. Consequently, Nixon nominated Ford to replace him. 

Nixon held on a bit longer but was finally hung with his own secret tapes, proving he planned the cover-up of the Watergate Hotel break-in by some of his own campaign staffers. 

Thus, Ford ascended to the presidency in August 1974. 

Initially, Ford said he would only serve out Nixon’s unexpired term, but he soon developed a taste for the trappings of power and announced he would seek a term in his own right. The problem was that the nationally popular Governor of California, Ronald Reagan, stood in Ford’s way. And Reagan had plenty of reasons to run in an increasingly conservative GOP. 

Ford, now freed of the yoke of Nixon, found himself out of place in that increasingly conservative party. Nixon had cut deals with the Soviets, so Ford did likewise. Nixon appointed liberals to the courts, so Ford did likewise. Nixon pursued many liberal objectives, so Ford did likewise. 

The final straw was Ford’s snubbing of the Nobel Prize-winning author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, a Soviet dissident whom the Russians imprisoned at one point. He did so on the advice of uber-neocon Henry Kissinger to avoid insulting the Soviets. For Reagan, that was it. He was infuriated at Ford’s knuckling under to Moscow. 

So, he plunged into the campaign, albeit as an underdog. At the time, there were thirty state primaries and many state conventions. The two wrestled for every bit of advantage. First, Ford won primaries, then Reagan won primaries. Ford won state conventions, and then Reagan won state conventions. 

They arrived in Kansas City, neither having enough delegates for a first-ballot nomination. 

The Ford forces used every means at their disposal, legitimate and otherwise, to win the nomination. Underhanded deals were cut. Offers of attendance at state dinners were made, rides on Air Force One and unbelievable sewer contracts offered. All the perks of the presidency were brought to bear on the few uncommitted delegates. There was questionable mischief in the New Jersey, Mississippi, and Ohio delegations. 

Some states elected uncommitted delegates, a hold-over from the smoke-filled rooms of yesteryear, so they could cut the best deal with campaigns for their states. 

None of this was illegal; it just didn’t look good in the light of day. No cash was exchanged, but several delegates asked for kickbacks that would have constituted illegal behavior. However, no charges were ever made. Ford forces walked close to the ethical line but never crossed it. Ford had all the influence of the White House behind him, and he used it to maximum effect. 

Uncommitted and wavering delegates were bargained for by both sides, but Ford, as the incumbent president, just had more firepower than Reagan. If the convention went to a second balloting, the delegates from six dozen states would have been freed to vote their real choice, and all knew the Gipper was their preference. The delegates were mostly governed by their state primaries, parties, and state conventions. Whoever won those individual states in many cases won the delegates – but only on a first convention balloting. Ford was desperate to win that first ballot nomination. 

This was a high-stakes brokered convention, and it was a nail-biter! 

Only by the third night of the confab was it apparent that Ford had won the 1976 GOP nomination by only 69 delegates out of over 2,200 in attendance, less than 2 percent. It was that close. 

However, something remarkable happened on the last night of the convention. At the last minute, Reagan was asked to address to the assembled 17,000 Republicans and the national media. 

Reagan gave an impromptu speech that upstaged the president, electrified the convention, and in so doing launched a new GOP, a political revolution, and an event-making presidency four years later. 

That night, Ford won the nomination, but Reagan won the hearts of the Republican Party and the American people. 

Famously, Reagan’s thunderous, history-altering speech lead one delegate to exclaim, “Oh my God, we’ve nominated the wrong man!” 

Craig Shirley is a conservative political consultant and the author of four books on Ronald Reagan.