Suggested Research Topics - The Collapse of George Romney's Presidential Campaign in 1968
Romney campaign, New Hampshire Primary, 1969.
From about 1966 to 1968, George Romney, governor of Michigan, was an active candidate for the 1968 Republican nomination for president of the United States. Just when he started thinking about the presidency is not clear. Perhaps the idea formed as a result of the national recognition he received from his leadership of American Motors in the 1950s and early 1960s. To this should be added his demonstrated voter appeal as evidenced by his overwhelming gubernatorial victories in 1962 and again in 1964. Sometime in 1965, Romney established a small office for himself in Lansing to answer the increasing correspondence he was receiving about national political issues. Many correspondents urged him to run for the presidency of the United States. After another resounding gubernatorial victory in 1966, Romney decided to have "a hard look" at his chances. To coordinate his political activities on the national level, he established Romney Associates.
Romney Associates was responsible for research, speech writing, press and public relations, scheduling and travel arrangements, and responding to the governor's out-of-state correspondence. At about the same time, believing that he needed a national presence, Romney selected Leonard Hall, former Republican National Chairman, to organize a Romney-for-President Committee. The functions assigned to the Hall committee, headquartered in Washington, D.C., included overall campaign strategy, searching out delegates, bringing together the various state Romney-for-President groups, preparing mailing lists, maintaining cordial relations with influential members of Congress, and planning for the nominating convention. Perhaps in the two organizations lay the seed of Romney's collapse as a candidate. Because of the geographic distance between the two groups and the frequent overlapping of their functions, the Romney campaign was marked by internal conflicts and inefficiency. The candidate himself received much of the criticism and his stand on various issues was not as clear-cut as should be expected. Added to this was the resurgence of Richard Nixon as a viable candidate. Unfairly, some might argue, Romney's campaign was dead soon after his official announcement in November 1967. Following the New Hampshire primary, in February 1968, Romney merely went through the motions, hoping for a political miracle that was not to be.
Using selected boxes in the Romney Associates collection, examine the initiation, campaign, and eventual decline of the George Romney presidential candidacy, evaluating in particular,
- the content of his campaign themes; and
- the effectiveness (or lack thereof) of his campaign strategy and of the staff selected to run his campaign;
Among the questions your paper should answer is:
- Did the GWR candidacy self-destruct because of the candidate's
strategies and statements, or was the Republican party voter unwilling to
accept the "maverick" Romney over the party regular Richard Nixon?
In an effort to encourage creative thinking about possible research topics for students unfamiliar with archives and their inevitable complexities, archivists and student employees of the Bentley Historical Library have authored "suggested research topics ." The purpose of these is not to define a topic but rather to stimulate thinking about a topic where the holdings of the Bentley Library are particularly strong.