The following individuals filed with the
Federal Election Commission (FEC) and/or announced their intentions to seek the
2012 presidential nomination of the Republican Party. In this table, those marked lighter grey were not featured in any
televised debates that occurred while their respective campaigns were active; those marked darker grey were excluded from the majority of those same televised debates, but are notable for having debated with at least some of the televised candidates
in other forums (usually online). Candidates with an asterisk after their withdrawal date subsequently sought the nomination of another party.
The withdrawal of candidate
Rick Santorum on April 10, 2012, eliminated his main challenger and all but guaranteed him the nomination.
Newt Gingrich's exit from the race on May 2 left him against Ron Paul and Fred Karger. His win in Texas on May 29 finally accumulated enough delegates to mathematically secure him the nomination. Romney was officially announced as the 2012 Republican presidential nominee on August 28, 2012.[2] He was defeated by incumbent
PresidentBarack Obama in the
general election on November 6, 2012.[3]
Leading up to the
convention, Ron Paul won bound pluralities of the official delegations from the states of Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Minnesota, Nevada, and Oregon (but not the Virgin Islands, despite winning the popular vote there). Due to disputes these were reduced to Iowa, Minnesota, and Nevada; however, he additionally had nomination-from-the-floor-pluralities in the states of Oregon and Alaska, plus the Virgin Islands.[5] Although he wasn't named the 2012 Republican nominee, he did not officially end his campaign or endorse nominee Mitt Romney for president.[6][7][8] At the
convention, Ron Paul received second place with 8% of the delegates.
Karger was not invited to any of the televised debates, but participated in the December WePolls.com online debate along with Gary Johnson and Buddy Roemer. He came in 4th place with 1,893 votes in Puerto Rico, 1,180 votes in Michigan, 10 votes in Iowa, 345 votes in New Hampshire, 377 votes in Maryland, 6,481 votes in his home state of California, and 545 votes in Utah, amounting up to a total of 10,831 votes. He withdrew following a 5th-place finish in the Utah primary, which was the final primary of the 2012 cycle. Karger received no delegate votes at the
convention.
After a poor showing in the Delaware primaries, Gingrich's advisers hinted on April 25, 2012, that he would exit the race the following week.[11] He officially ended his campaign on May 2, and endorsed Mitt Romney.[12] Gingrich received no delegate votes at the
convention, having released his bound delegates to Romney.
Santorum suspended his campaign following the hospitalization of his three-year-old daughter Isabella, as well as a strong showing by front runner Mitt Romney in primaries and polls.[14][15][16] He conceded the race to Romney later that day, though didn't fully endorse him until May 7.[17][18][19] Santorum received nine delegate votes at the
convention, coming in third behind Romney and Ron Paul, despite having officially released his bound delegates to Romney.
Roemer was not invited to any of the televised debates, but participated in the November LibertyPAC online debate with Gingrich, Johnson, and Santorum, and then also in the December WePolls.com online debate along with Gary Johnson and Fred Karger. He received a total of 30,523 votes from Iowa New Hampshire, Tennessee, Michigan, Georgia, Louisiana, Texas, California, and Puerto Rico, where he came in third place. On February 22, he withdrew from the Republican race to pursue nomination as a member of the
Reform Party.[21] Roemer received one delegate-vote at the
convention.
After doing poorly in Iowa and New Hampshire, he suspended his campaign, endorsing Newt Gingrich.[23] On April 25, he switched his endorsement to Mitt Romney, after advisers hinted that Gingrich would withdraw from the race.[24] He remained on the ballot in most states prior to Super Tuesday, and received 54,769 votes during the primary season. Perry received no delegate votes at the
convention.
After coming in third in New Hampshire, he suspended his campaign, endorsing Mitt Romney.[26] He remained on the ballot in most states prior to Super Tuesday, and received 84,724 votes during the primary season, collecting two delegates. Huntsman received one delegate vote at the
convention.
After winning the
Ames Straw Poll, her candidacy collapsed and after coming sixth in the
Iowa caucuses, she suspended her presidential campaign.[28] After months of speculation, Bachmann endorsed Mitt Romney on May 3.[29] She remained on the ballot in most states prior to Super Tuesday, and received 41,401 votes during the primary season, collecting two 'soft' delegates. Bachmann received one delegate vote at the
convention.
Suspended or withdrew before the primaries, but appeared on at least three primary ballots
After a series of scandals, Cain suspended his presidential campaign, and after momentarily reviving it as part of
Stephen Colbert's satirical presidential campaign, endorsed Newt Gingrich on January 28, 2012.[31][32] On April 17, 2012, he changed his endorsement to
Mitt Romney.[33] He remained on the ballot in a number of states, and has received 13,629 votes during the primary season. Cain received no delegate votes at the
convention.
Johnson was in the first televised debate, and in one other televised debate, but was
excluded from the other televised debates. He debated online during November with Gingrich, Santorum, and Roemer; he then debated online with Roemer and Karger during December. Johnson withdrew his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination on December 28, endorsing Ron Paul in that contest.[citation needed] Johnson officially declared his candidacy for the 2012
Libertarian Partypresidential nomination on the same day, and became the party's nominee on May 5, 2012.[35][36] He remained on the Republican primary ballot in a number of states and received 4,364 votes during the Republican primary season. As the Libertarian nominee, Johnson received 1,274,136 votes (which was 1% of the votes cast) on the
November general election ballot.
Appeared on only two primary ballots
L. John Davis Jr.
L. John Davis Jr., small business owner from
Colorado,[37] filed with the FEC on October 1, 2010.[38] He participated in the lesser-known candidates forum ahead of the New Hampshire Primary. Davis appeared on the ballot in New Hampshire[39] and Texas,[40] receiving 3,901 votes in total.
Michael J. Meehan
Michael J. Meehan, realtor from
Missouri,[41] participated in the lesser-known candidates forum ahead of the New Hampshire primary. He appeared on the ballot in New Hampshire[39] and Missouri,[42] receiving 410 votes in total.
Mark Callahan
Mark Callahan, technician from
Oregon,[43] filed with the FEC on May 16, 2011.[44] He appeared on the ballot in New Hampshire[39] and Arizona,[45] receiving 378 votes in total.
Christopher Hill
Christopher Hill, airline pilot from
Kentucky,[46] filed with the FEC on May 31, 2011.[47] He participated in the lesser-known candidates forum ahead of the New Hampshire primary. Hill appeared on the ballot in New Hampshire[39] and Arizona,[45] receiving 247 votes in total.
Randy Crow
Randy Crow, business owner and conspiracy theorist from
North Carolina,[48] originally filed with the FEC to run as an Independent on May 11, 2010.[49] He switched his affiliation to Republican on November 12, 2010.[50] Crow participated in the lesser-known candidates forum in December 2011, ahead of the New Hampshire primary. He appeared on the ballot in New Hampshire[39] and Louisiana,[51] receiving 198 votes in total.
Keith Drummond
Keith Drummond, a businessman[52] from
Texas, filed with the FEC on September 12, 2011.[53] He appeared on the ballot in New Hampshire[39] and Missouri,[42] receiving 195 votes.
Andy Martin,
perennial candidate and
birther activist of
Illinois, declared his candidacy on December 29, 2010.[54] He received 19 votes in New Hampshire and did not attempt to get his name on any other ballot. On April 25, 2012, Martin dropped his bid for the nomination and announced his intent to remain politically active within the race until the 2012 Republican national convention, at which point he endorsed nominee Mitt Romney.[55]
Filed with the FEC, but appeared on no primary ballots
Jimmy McMillan
Jimmy McMillan, perennial candidate from
New York declared his candidacy on December 23, 2010.[59] He stopped running as a Republican candidate on January 31, 2012, in an attempt to get his
Rent Is Too Damn High Party on the New York ballot in November via lawsuit.[60] On September 13, 2012, McMillan dropped out of the race in order to focus on his candidacy for the
2013 New York City mayoral election, and endorsed President Barack Obama.[61]
Thaddeus McCotter, U.S. Representative from
Michigan, declared his candidacy on July 2, 2011.[62] McCotter was in the July 20 TheTeaParty.net twitter-debate, along with Bachmann, Cain, Gingrich, Johnson, and Santorum, but was not invited to the two Iowa & California televised debates which occurred while he was running. McCotter dropped out of the race on September 22, 2011 (the day of the televised Florida debate—the third during his campaign—to which he also was not invited), and endorsed Mitt Romney.[63] He received 35 votes at the
Ames Straw Poll.
Tim Pawlenty, former Governor of Minnesota, declared his candidacy on May 23, 2011.[64] Pawlenty dropped out of the race on August 14, 2011, after a third-place finish at the
Ames Straw Poll.[65] He endorsed Mitt Romney for President on September 12, 2011.[66] He received 2,293 votes, or 13.6%, at Ames, and two write-ins in the Caucus itself, as well as four in New Hampshire, for a total of six during the primary season.
Jonathon Sharkey
Jonathon Sharkey, perennial candidate from
Florida, filed a presidential committee with the FEC on May 5, 2010.[67][68][69] Sharkey withdrew from the race on August 17, 2011, to pursue a movie career.[70]
Jack Fellure, perennial candidate from
West Virginia, filed a presidential committee with the FEC on November 5, 2008.[71] Fellure ended his campaign for the Republican nomination on June 22, 2011, after receiving the presidential nomination of the
Prohibition Party.[72]
Formed exploratory committee but did not run
Roy Moore
Roy Moore, former
Chief Justice of the
Alabama Supreme Court, announced the formation of an exploratory committee on May 18, 2011.[73][74] When that campaign failed to gain traction, he began to draw speculation in the media as being a potential Constitution Party presidential contender.[75][76] Moore eventually withdrew his exploratory committee and ended all speculation of a presidential candidacy in November 2011, when he announced he would seek election to his former post of Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court in 2012.[77] He received two write-in votes in Iowa.
Speculative candidates
Received speculation
The following people were the object of presidential speculation in media reports in 2011. This gallery does not include people who declined to run (see below).
The following people, who were speculated to be potential candidates for the Republican Party's presidential nomination clearly and unequivocally denied interest publicly, released
Shermanesque statements, or declared candidacy for a different political office in 2012.
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