Ford vs. Reagan
The 1976 Republican Convention was the last time there was an actual floor fight for the nomination of a major Party President. It was a hotly contested battle between incumbent President Ford and challenger Ronald Reagan.
The Republicans, fractured from Watergate, met in Kansas City to nominate their candidate to run against Jimmy Carter. President Gerald Ford had been damaged by pardoning former President Richard Nixon. Conservative Republicans smelled blood in the water, and it didn’t help that Ford had initially picked Nelson Rockefeller, an Eastern Establishment Liberal, as his choice for running mate. Their preferred candidate, former Governor Ronald Reagan, took on Ford and won 24 of 50 contests. The party was nearly split down the middle when they made it to the convention.
There were a small number of undecided delegates, but most were persuaded by the NYS Republican Chairman (my father), Dick Rosenbaum, to side with Ford. After the balloting, Ford won the majority by less than 100 votes. Ford was compromised and ultimately jettisoned Rocky for Kansas Senator Bob Dole to appease the Conservatives. By Election Day, they had nearly clawed their way back but ultimately came up short in a squeaker of an election.
About the Pin
The pin featured is one of my favorites. It displays the animus between the two Republican candidates. Two different pins were made—one featuring one candidate in a White cowboy hat (the “good guy”) and one featuring the other candidate in a black hat (the “bad guy”). The pin highlighted here is slightly rarer in that Ford was the incumbent and generally was seen with the white hat.
State Chair Dick Rosenbaum
Below there are two videos that feature State Chair and Ford loyalist Dick Rosenbaum. In the first one, he describes his altercation with a Reagan delegate. You don’t see him decking the delegate and dragging him off the convention floor. The second is his nomination of the President, which ultimately gave Ford the majority.
Dick Rosenbaum was a key political figure and staunch supporter of Gerald Ford during the 1976 Republican National Convention. The two videos here highlight pivotal moments in Rosenbaum’s role at the convention.
Video 1: The Altercation with a Reagan Delegate
In the first video, Rosenbaum recounts a physical confrontation with a Reagan delegate on the convention floor. While the video does not explicitly show Rosenbaum striking the delegates or physically removing them, his account suggests a heated and possibly aggressive exchange during a critical convention moment. Such tensions were common, as the Ford and Reagan camps were fiercely competing for delegate support in what became one of the closest nomination fights in modern Republican history.
Video 2: The Nomination of President Ford
The second video features Rosenbaum officially nominating President Gerald Ford, a significant moment that helped Ford secure the majority needed to win the Republican nomination. Rosenbaum’s nomination speech and actions were crucial in ensuring Ford’s victory over Reagan at the convention. Although Reagan had strong grassroots support, Ford ultimately edged him out in the delegate count, primarily due to loyalists like Rosenbaum working behind the scenes to rally votes.
This account underscores the intense political infighting at the 1976 Republican National Convention, a moment that shaped the GOP’s future and influenced Reagan’s eventual rise to the presidency in 1980.
