Gay and lesbian issues in the 2000 campaign were more muted than in the past several election cycles, owing principally to Republican Party efforts to present itself and its presidential candidate, Texas Gov. George W. Bush, in a less ideologically rigid light.

The muting and blurring of unpopular Republican social policy stands, coupled with Vice President Al Gore's seeming inability to emotionally connect with voters in a way that did not appear calculated, is thought by many to partly explain the closeness of the race in what should have been an easy Democratic sweep in 2000.

Neat conclusions about the 2000 presidential race, given the extraordinary series of events that led to the Supreme Court's decision to halt hand recounts and hand the election to Bush, are elusive. Read more about it in the 2000 Post-Election Controversy section.

The Republicans played a relatively weak hand to great advantage in 2000. They made certain their supporters knew they remained deeply opposed to abortion, gay rights, affirmative action and other progressive issues, but moved the focus of the national campaign onto traditionally Democratic policy terrain. This was a marked departure from earlier national campaigns.

In the by-election of 1996, for example, attempts by Republican challengers in congressional races to unseat Democratic incumbents attacking their support for the Employment Non Discrimination Act or votes cast against the Defense of Marriage Act failed to unseat a single Democrat. At the close of the campaign, the Human Rights Campaign declared gay-baiting and gay-bashing as a "wedge issue" campaign tactic a total failure.

Gay and lesbian voter turnout is generally believed to be between 4.5 and 5 percent of the national electorate in the United States -- well above the 3 percent tabulated in 1994. In the U.S. and throughout the industrialized West, the gay vote in major metropolitan centers makes up a far larger segment of the electorate -- anywhere from 8 to 12 percent depending on the city.

In the summer leading to the 1998 mid-term elections in the United States, gay baiting and bashing was again used by religious conservatives and some in the Republican leadership to enliven the far right wing of the party. The Republicans were counting on anti-gay rhetoric to motivate core supporters on the right to carry their candidates to victory. Confident the Republican Party would reap the benefits of public disillusionment over the Lewinsky scandal, the Republicans boasted they would gain 10-40 seats in the House in the upcoming election.

But Democrats across the country rallied. Strong African-American and gay turnouts in urban areas propped up endangered candidates and put new Democrats in office. Religious conservatives experienced crushing failures throughout the South and West. Rather than gaining 40 seats in the House, the Republicans lost five. The ratio of Republicans to Democrats in the Senate remained the same.

In the 2000 election, Democrats narrowed the Republican lead even further. The United States Senate is now evenly split between 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans. Republicans lost two seats in the House and the Democrats picked up two, narrowing the majority's lead to nine votes.

> 1998 Mid-Term Elections
> 2000 General Election (Other Races)
> 2000 Presidential Campaign
> 2000 Presidential Primaries
> 2000 Recount & Gore Loss
> Ashcroft Confirmation Fight
> Bush II Presidency
> Christian Coalition - National Strategies
> Conservative Michael Portillo (U.K.)
> Democratic Party
> Dornan vs Sanchez
> HRC Endorsement of Alfonse D'Amato
> James Hormel Nomination
> Labour Party (U.K.)
> Log Cabin Republicans
> Reform Party (U.S.)
> Republican Party
> William Jefferson Clinton
> William Weld Nomination

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