☜ 1994 •  • 2002 ☞
| ||||
| UNITED STATES PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION 3 November 1998 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Josiah Bartlet | n/a | n/a | ||
 |
 |
 | ||
| Democratic Party | Republican Party | Third Party/Independent | ||
| STATE | ||||
| New Hampshire | n/a | n/a | ||
| RUNNING MATE | ||||
| John Hoynes | ||||
| VOTES | ||||
| electoral | ||||
| 303 | 235 | 0 | ||
| states carried | ||||
| popular | ||||
| 48,000,000 | 47,000,000 | 5,000,000 | ||
| PERCENTAGE | ||||
| 48% | 47% | 5% | ||
 | ||||
| Presidential election results map. Red denotes states won by the Republican ticket, Blue denotes those won by the Democratic ticket (Bartlet/Hoynes). Each number represents the electoral votes a state gave to one candidate. | ||||
| PRESIDENTS | ||||
| ☜ Incumbent (R) | Josiah Bartlet (D) ☞ | ||||
The United States Presidential Election of 1998 was held on Tuesday, November 3 of that year and saw the election of Governor Josiah Bartlet (D-NH) as President of the United States. President-elect Bartlet succeeded a Republican President.[1]
Nominations[]
Democratic[]
Main Article: Democratic Presidential Primary Election (1998)
The following politicians declared themselves candidates for the election:
- Governor Josiah Bartlet (New Hampshire)
- Senator John Hoynes (Texas)
- Senator William Wiley (Washington)
Josiah Bartlet won the Democratic Primaries. He selected his former opponent, John Hoynes, to be his running mate, in order to balance the ticket and carry electoral votes from the South.
Election[]
The election was described as "too close to call" for most of the campaign. Josiah Bartlet won a narrow victory with only 48% of the vote, 48 million popular votes, and 303 electoral votes.
Bartlet's Republican opponent has never been named, although a vague reference to "running against Eisenhower" was made in the episode "The Wedding", where Leo and Josh discuss election campaigns. According to Sam Seaborn their opponent "had a record conservatives couldn't complain about".[2]
It is stated by Leo that Bartlet had no mandate, as a majority "voted for somebody else", and Charlie Young mentions that Bartlet received a plurality, meaning third party candidates must have drawn a sizable share of the vote.[3] In a discussion about free trade, Josh Lyman later references the "giant sucking sound" rhetoric of opponents, a direct reference to Ross Perot's famous quote, suggesting Perot or an equivalent may have been the third candidate in 1998.[4]
DEBATES
There were three Presidential debates, the final one being held on October 30, 1998 in St. Louis, Missouri in a 550-person auditorium. Just prior to the debate, Governor Bartlet experienced an attack brought on by his Multiple Sclerosis that his doctors identified as an inner ear infection.[5]