John Connally and fellow Texan president. In May 1973, Connally joined the Republican Party. When Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned five months later because of scandal, Connally was one of Nixon's potential choices to fill the vacancy. Nixon tapped Gerald Ford, the House Minority Leader from Grand Rapids, Michigan, because he believed that the moderate Ford could be easily confirmed by both houses of Congress, as required by the 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution. A Connally nomination presumably could have been blocked by liberal Democratic opposition. The weakened Nixon did not want a fight for the vice-presidential selection. Connally's party
Maryland six jurisdictions, most of which contain large, traditionally Democratic voting bloc(s): African Americans in Baltimore City and Prince George's, federal employees in Prince George's, Anne Arundel, and Montgomery, and postgraduates in Montgomery. The remainder of the state, particularly Western Maryland and the Eastern Shore, is more supportive of Republicans. One of Maryland's best known political figures is a Republican – former Governor Spiro Agnew, who served under President Richard Nixon as the U.S. Vice President from 1969 to 1973, when he resigned in the aftermath of findings that he had taken bribes while he was Governor of Maryland. Though claiming