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The Front-Runner Falls

The Failure of Howard Dean

Politics School, University of the West of England, Dean.Mcsweeney{at}uwe.ac.uk

From 1980 until 2000, two indicators successfully predicted presidential nominees in advance of the contest: the front-runner in the latest poll of party identifiers and the leader in fundraising in the previous year. In 2004, both indicators predicted Howard Dean to win the Democratic nomination and both were incorrect. In accounting for the failure of these predictions, this article shows that Dean was an untypically weak front-runner compared to his predecessors. His relative weaknesses included a lower level of support, a narrower lead and less name recognition. In competing against his opponents, Dean was vulnerable to the importance primary voters attached to ability to win the election and their lateness in deciding for whom to vote. These features of the contest disadvantaged Dean and enabled John Kerry to ride a bandwagon to a quick victory.

Key Words: Democratic Party • nominations • primaries • US presidential elections

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