Phil Gramm was my candidate in 1996; he was both the most conservative candidate and the candidate that had raised the most money by December 1995. It was Gramm’s nomination to lose, and he promptly lost it, buying into a rogue Louisiana caucus cooked up by his supporters and boycotted by the other major candidates but of which Pat Buchanan was able to take advantage; Buchanan beat Gramm handily at the LA caucus, and then Gramm failed to finish in the top 3 in euther IA or NH, and he dropped out before the Super Tuesday contests that he had planned on being his coronation. In hindsight, given that Perot ran again and this time took votes almost exclusively from the GOP, it didn’t really matter whom we put up against Clinton. Had Perot not run, though, it would have been a very close race, with the winner being whoever carried .... wait for it ... Pennsylvania. In 2016, the Keystone State was more than just a nickname for PA, and it may well be that way again in 2020.
If Gramm wasn’t deft enough to navigate those early contests, he wouldn’t have been able to pull it off in the general, unfortunately. I was backing Dole simply on experience and his excellent military record and distinguished service.
Some FReepers subscribed to the notion that he deliberately threw the race (a la McQueeg and Willard), but I don’t. Alas, he was too much of a gentleman to run the vicious race required to defeat the evil Clintoons. A warning that you can’t run a Mr. Nice Guy campaign against truly evil Derp Staters.