Chiles relied heavily on his support from the retiring senator Spessard Holland. He noted that Cramer had expected to face former governor Farris Bryant, who like LeRoy Collins, Gurney's foe in 1968, had ties to the administration of U.S. president Lyndon B. Johnson. Bryant lost the senatorial primary to Chiles. "I'm not anything Cramer thought he would be running against. So he's reduced to telling lies about me," Chiles quipped. Chiles said that Cramer can bring Nixon, Agnew, Reagan, and anybody else he wants. ... I'll take Holland on my side against all of them."