Ronald Reagan 1980 presidential campaign clinch the nomination for the Republican Party. His opponent in the general election, incumbent President Jimmy Carter, passed the delegate threshold to become the presumptive nominee of his party on June 3. On May 26, George H. W. Bush, Reagan's remaining opponent for the Republican nomination, conceded defeat and urged his supporters to back Reagan. Ronald Reagan's choice for vice presidential running mate had been a subject of speculation since the end of the primaries. When former President Gerald Ford revealed in a CBS interview with Walter Cronkite that he was seriously considering the vice presidency, Ford garnered a great
USS Ronald Reagan January 2007 on an unscheduled surge deployment to the Western Pacific, fulfilling the role of the forward deployed carrier while it underwent maintenance in Japan. On 20 April 2007, "Ronald Reagan" and her CSG returned to Coronado. The "surge deployment" was part of the Navy's Fleet Response Plan, which provides the US with the ability to respond to any global commitment with flexible and sustainable forces and the ability to rapidly respond to a range of situations on short notice. In January 2007, it was announced that "Ronald Reagan" had earned the 2006 Commander, Naval Air Forces Pacific Carrier Battle