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
Political positions of Ronald Reagan Political positions of Ronald Reagan Ronald Reagan was the 40th President of the United States (1981–1989) and the 33rd Governor of California (1967–1975). Reagan served as President during the later part of the Cold War, an era of political and ideological disagreement between the United States and the Soviet Union. Reagan labeled the Soviet Union an "evil empire" that would be consigned to the "ash heap of history" and he later predicted that communism would collapse. He reversed the policy of détente and massively built up the United States military. Through it, Reagan ordered production of the MX missile, the