page_title: Pat Buchanan 2000 presidential campaign
section_title: Outcome
hierarchical_section_title: Pat Buchanan 2000 presidential campaign / Outcome
caption_attribution_description: English: Official ballot for the 2000 United States Presidential election, November 7, 2000, from Palm Beach County, Florida.
context_page_description: The 2000 presidential campaign of Pat Buchanan, conservative pundit and adviser to both President Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, was formally launched on March 2, 1999 as Buchanan announced his intention to seek the Republican Party nomination for the presidency of the United States in the 2000 presidential election. Buchanan had twice sought the nomination of the Republican Party in 1992 and 1996. In October 1999, Buchanan announced that he was leaving the Republican Party in favor of Ross Perot's Reform Party.
  Buchanan's campaign was plagued by controversy, party infighting, and ultimately the Florida recount controversy.
  Buchanan ran on an anti-NAFTA, pro-life, anti-war, non-interventionist platform.
context_section_description: In the 2000 presidential election, Buchanan finished fourth with 449,895 votes, 0.4% of the popular vote. Hagelin garnered 0.1 percent as the Natural Law candidate. In Palm Beach County, Florida, Buchanan received 3,407 votes—which some saw as inconsistent with Palm Beach County's liberal leanings, its large Jewish population and his showing in the rest of the state. As a result of the county's now-infamous "butterfly ballot," he is suspected to have gained thousands of inadvertent votes. Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer stated, "Palm Beach county is a Pat Buchanan stronghold and that's why Pat Buchanan received 3,407 votes there." However, 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.
  Some observers said his campaign was aimed to spread his message beyond his white base, while his views had not changed.
  Following the 2000 election, Reformers 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 re-election, writing: 
  Bush is right on taxes, judges, sovereignty, and values. Kerry is right on nothing.
caption: The 'butterfly ballot' was used in Palm Beach County, Florida, where Buchanan received a controversially large number of votes.
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