KENNEDY SURGES DESPITE BIAS AND CENSORSHIP

The worst nightmare for an incumbent President is to receive a serious intra-party nomination challenge. In recent history, it has happened three times. In 1976, a conservative challenger, former California Governor Ronald Reagan, made a valiant attempt that almost succeeded in denying the GOP nomination for President Gerald Ford.

In 1980, U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) vigorously challenged President Jimmy Carter for the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination. In 1992, conservative commentator Pat Buchanan offered Republican Party voters an alternative to moderate President George H. W. Bush.

While none of these intra-party nomination challenges were successful, the incumbent Presidents were weakened and eventually lost the presidential race to their opponents in the general election.