In 1974, Republican President Richard Nixon was forced to resign following the Watergate Scandal.
 Vice President Gerald Ford ascended to the presidency, leaving the office of vice president vacant.
 Under the terms of the 25th Amendment, a vice presidential vacancy is filled when the president nominates a candidate who is confirmed by both houses of Congress.
 On August 20, 1974, Ford announced his nomination of former New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller to fill the vacancy.
 Ford also considered picking Tennessee Senator Howard Baker and former Republican National Committee Chairman George H.W. Bush.
 Rockefeller was generally considered to be a liberal Republican, and Ford decided that picking Rockefeller would help his candidacy gain support in the 1976 presidential election.
 The confirmation hearings for Rockefeller lasted for months, but Rockefeller was sworn in as the 41st Vice President of the United States on December 19, 1974.
 Due to the pressure on Ford by the party conservatives, Rockefeller was ultimately passed over for the 1976 ticket, and Ford instead chose Bob Dole as his running mate.
 Ford, however, regreted this move later.
The United States presidential election of 2012 was the 57th quadrennial American presidential election.
 It was held on Tuesday, November 6, 2012.
 The Democratic nominee, incumbent President Barack Obama, and his running mate, Vice President Joe Biden, were elected to a second term, defeating the Republican nominee, former Governor of Massachusetts Mitt Romney and his running mate, Representative and future House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin.
Frank Edward McEnulty (born 1956) is an American businessperson and politician.
 In the 2008 presidential election, he was the vice presidential nominee of the Reform Party of the United States of America, and the presidential nominee of the New American Independent Party.
 His running mate for the latter was Bobby Klingler.
 In total, he received 833 votes in the presidential election for his presidential candidacy and 481 for his vice-presidential candidacy.
 
Robert Joseph Dole (born July 22, 1923) is an American lawyer and politician who represented Kansas in Congress from 1961 to 1996 and served as the Republican Leader of the United States Senate from 1985 until 1996.
 He was the Republican presidential nominee in the 1996 presidential election and the party's vice presidential nominee in the 1976 presidential election.
The United States presidential election of 1996 was the 53rd quadrennial presidential election.
 It was held on Tuesday, November 5, 1996.
 The Democratic national ticket was led by incumbent President Bill Clinton, and his running mate, incumbent Vice President Al Gore.
 The Republican nominee for President was Bob Dole, the former Republican Leader of the United States Senate and long-time Senator from Kansas who was previously the vice-presidential running mate of President Gerald Ford in 1976, following Vice President Nelson Rockefeller's retirement from politics that year.
 Dole's running mate for Vice President was Jack Kemp, a former NFL football player and the Housing Secretary under George H. W. Bush.
 Businessman Ross Perot ran as candidate for the Reform Party with economist Pat Choate as his running mate; he received less media attention and was excluded from the presidential debates and, while still obtaining substantial results for a third-party candidate, by U.S. standards, did not renew his success of the 1992 election.
 Turnout was registered at 49.0%, the lowest for a presidential election since 1924.
The United States presidential election of 1976 was the 48th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 2, 1976.
 The winner was the Dark horse candidate Jimmy Carter, a former Governor from Georgia with his running mate, Walter Mondale, a U.S. Senator from Minnesota, the Democratic candidates, over the incumbent President Gerald Ford from Michigan and his running mate, Bob Dole, a U.S. Senator from Kansas, the Republican candidates.
The 2012 United States presidential election in Utah took place on November 6, 2012 as part of the 2012 General Election in which all 50 states plus The District of Columbia participated.
 Utah voters chose six electors to represent them in the Electoral College via a popular vote pitting incumbent Democratic President Barack Obama and his running mate, Vice President Joe Biden, against Republican challenger and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and his running mate, Congressman Paul Ryan.
 Prior to the election, all 17 news organizations considered this a state Romney would win, or otherwise considered as a safe red state.
 Utah is among the most heavily Republican states, voting for the Republican ticket in every presidential election since 1968, and is also the only state to have a majority Mormon population, benefiting Romney, the first Mormon to head a major party presidential ticket.
 He carried every county in the state, all by large margins.
 However, Obama would go on to win reelection nationwide.
The 2008 presidential campaign of John McCain, the longtime senior U.S. Senator from Arizona, was launched with an informal announcement on February 28, 2007 during a live taping of the "Late Show with David Letterman", and formally launched at an event on April 25, 2007.
 His second candidacy for the Presidency of the United States, he had previously run for his party's nomination in the 2000 primaries and was considered as a potential running mate for his party's nominee, then-Governor George W. Bush of Texas.
 After winning a majority of delegates in the Republican primaries of 2008, on August 29, leading up to the convention, McCain selected Governor Sarah Palin of Alaska as his running mate for Vice President.
 Five days later, at the 2008 Republican National Convention, McCain was formally selected as the Republican Party presidential nominee in the 2008 presidential election.
Thomas Edmund Dewey (March 24, 1902 – March 16, 1971) was an American lawyer, prosecutor, and politician.
 He served as the 47th Governor of New York from 1943 to 1954.
 In 1944, he was the Republican Party's nominee for President.
 He lost the 1944 election to President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the closest of Roosevelt's four presidential elections.
 He was again the Republican presidential nominee in 1948, but lost to President Harry S. Truman in one of the greatest upsets in presidential election history.
 Dewey played a large role in winning the Republican presidential nomination for Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1952, and helped Eisenhower win the presidential election that year.
 He also played a large part in the choice of Richard M. Nixon as the Republican vice-presidential nominee in 1952 and 1956.
The United States presidential election of 1988 was the 51st quadrennial United States presidential election.
 It was held on Tuesday, November 8, 1988.
 Incumbent Vice President George H. W. Bush won the Republican nomination, and chose Senator Dan Quayle of Indiana as his running mate.
 The Democrats nominated Governor Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts, with Senator Lloyd Bentsen of Texas – who had coincidentally defeated Bush in a U.S. Senate race 18 years earlier – as his running mate.

Question: In what year was Gerald Ford's running mate from the 1976 United States presidential election the Republican presidential nominee?
Answer: 1996