Gore Lieberman 2000

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In 1999, then US Vice President Al Gore announced his candidacy for US President. Gore served as a US Congressman for Tennessee from 1977 to 1993 before becoming Bill Clinton's Vice President in 1993. In August of 2000, Gore selected Joe Lieberman (1942- ), US Senator from Connecticut, as his running mate. When Lieberman accepted, he became the first Jewish-American candidate to nationally represent one of America's two major parties. Gore and Lieberman ran against the Republican candidates, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. Bush was Governor of Texas at the time and Cheney was the CEO of Halliburton.

Gore and Lieberman lost the presidential election to Bush and Cheney by five Electoral College votes. The popular vote in Florida was so close—Bush beat Gore by just over 500 votes out of over 6 million—that the Florida election code called for a state-wide automated recount. In addition, the election season in Florida was fraught with so much controversy that Gore requested three counties' votes to be recounted by hand. The ballot controversy went all the way to the US Supreme Court, which decided 5-4 that due to recount time limits Bush's certification as winner would stand.