1992 U.S. presidential election

1992

Bill Clinton defeated President George H. W. Bush in a three-way race in which independent Ross Perot won nearly 19 percent.

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The story

On November 3, 1992, Democrat Bill Clinton, the governor of Arkansas, defeated President George H. W. Bush. Clinton won 370 electoral votes with 43.0 percent of the popular vote. Bush took 168 electoral votes and 37.4 percent. Texas billionaire Ross Perot, running as an independent against the deficit and free trade deals, won 18.9 percent, nearly 20 million votes, but no electoral votes.

After victory in the 1991 Gulf War, Bush's approval had soared to about 90 percent, and several leading Democrats chose not to run. But a recession, rising unemployment and Bush's broken pledge of 'no new taxes' turned the mood. With the Soviet Union gone, foreign policy mattered less to voters. Clinton's campaign kept its focus with the internal reminder 'the economy, stupid,' and presented him as a centrist New Democrat. At 46, he was the first president from the baby boom generation.

Why it mattered

Clinton's presidency won passage of NAFTA, a deficit reduction plan and, later, welfare reform.
His failed health care plan helped Republicans win Congress in 1994 for the first time in 40 years.
Perot's strong showing pushed both parties to address the federal deficit, balanced by the late 1990s.

Sources

United States presidential election of 1992 Britannica
Bill Clinton: Campaigns and Elections Miller Center

Drafted by AI (Claude) from the sources above and checked against them by AI; no historian has reviewed this page. Spot a mistake? Suggest a correction. How pages are made

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Learn more ranked by votes

BookJack W. Germond and Jules Witcover

Mad as Hell

At a glance

When: November 3, 1992
Where: United States (50 states and Washington, D.C.)
Key people: Bill Clinton (Democratic, winner)
George H. W. Bush (Republican incumbent)
Ross Perot (independent)
Al Gore (vice president-elect)
James Carville (Clinton strategist)

370 to 168electoral votes, Clinton over Bush

18.9%Perot's share of the popular vote, with no electoral votes

646earlier events it rests on

3later events that depend on it

Couldn't have happened without

1988 U.S. presidential election1988

EssentialBush's 1988 win, and his broken tax pledge, made him the incumbent on trial in 1992.

Gulf War1991

ImportantBush's Gulf War triumph scared off top Democrats, then faded as the economy took over.

Soviet Union dissolves1991

ImportantWith the Cold War over, voters turned from foreign policy, Bush's strength, to the economy.

Led to

1996 U.S. presidential election1996

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