John McCain 2000 presidential campaign

The 2000 presidential campaign of John McCain, the United States Senator from Arizona, began in September 1999. He announced his run for the Republican Party nomination for the presidency of the United States in the 2000 presidential election. Although McCain declared himself a candidate in April 1999 during the Kosovo crisis, the campaign's formal kickoff did not take place until September 27, 1999, in Nashua, New Hampshire.

McCain was the main challenger to Texas Governor George W. Bush, who had the political and financial support of most of the party establishment. McCain staged an upset win in the February 2000 New Hampshire primary, capitalizing on a message of political reform and "straight talk" that appealed to moderate Republican and independent voters and to the press. McCain's momentum was halted when Bush won the South Carolina primary later that month, in a contest that became famous for its bitter nature and an underground smear campaign run against McCain.

McCain won some subsequent primaries, but after the March 2000 Super Tuesday contests he was well behind in delegates and withdrew. He reluctantly endorsed Bush two months later and made occasional appearances for him during the general election.

The campaign was built around campaign finance reform, opposition to special interests, public service, national security, and McCain's military biography, all amplified by the Straight Talk Express bus and an intensive town-hall strategy in New Hampshire. Retrospectives have often treated the bid as both the high-water mark of McCain's "maverick" reputation and a major unrealized alternative in Republican Party politics at the turn of the twenty-first century.