1976: When Reagan Almost Won

Above, Nancy and Ronald Reagan arrive for a meeting at the Hilton Plaza Hotel during the
1976 Republican National Convention in Kansas City, Missouri. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

If you think this year's GOP presidential primary contest has been contentious, take a look back at the 1976 Republican National Convention. It is hard to believe that was 40 years ago.

It was my first national convention. I attended as a Ronald Reagan delegate from California at the ripe old age of 22. I also attended the next two Republican national conventions, but the 1976 one was the most exciting.

The Daily Signal has posted an article on the 1976 Republican National Convention.

They begin it with:

The magic number needed to capture the Republican presidential nomination in 1976 was 1,130 delegates, and Ronald Reagan was oh so close as the national convention prepared to convene. 

After losing six straight primaries to President Gerald Ford early in the year, Reagan had come roaring back, attacking Ford for his weak foreign policy and deficit spending and winning the crucial North Carolina primary with help from Sen. Jesse Helms. Reagan achieved a political resurrection and posed the most serious challenge to an incumbent Republican president since 1912 when Theodore Roosevelt had taken on William Howard Taft.

To read more, go here.