President Milton Shapp.
That sounds strange, doesn’t it? There’s never been a President named Milton Shapp. The name itself doesn’t exactly sound all the Presidential. A president named Milton? At one time, Milton brought to mind Paradise Lost. Today, for many people, Milton might bring to mind Stephen Root protectively holding his red stapler in Office Space. It’s not a name that we associate with presidents.
And yet, in 1976, Milton Shapp was one of the many people who ran an at least semi-serious campaign for presidency. He was the governor of Pennsylvania, having first been elected in 1970 and narrowly re-elected in 1974. He was the owner of an electronics company, a self-made millionaire. He played the violin. He wrote poetry. He was the author of several musicals that had never actually been produced. He ran for the Democratic Presidential nomination and, as you can probably guess, he didn’t get far. If he had been elected, he would have been the country’s first Jewish President.
Of course, he wasn’t elected President. If he had been elected, it’s doubtful that he would have been any better than Jimmy Carter. But he would be remembered. Milton Shapp would be the one with the books written about his life and Jimmy Carter would be the one reduced to being an obscure footnote in someone else’s story.
Unfortunately for Milton Shapp and the majority of the other people who ran for President in 1976, people don’t remember the also-rans. They remember the candidates who won their party’s nominations. To me, that’s a shame. Sometimes, the also-rans are far more intriguing than the people who won. In 1976, the first election after America’s only presidential resignation, over 20 candidates either ran or considered running for the White House. Arizona’s Mo Udall was a one-eyed Mormon who was also a former basketball player. North Carolina’s Terry Sanford was the President of Duke University. Oklahoma’s Fred Harris traveled across the country in a RV and stayed in the homes of his supporters. Indiana’s Birch Bayh and Idaho’s Frank Church were respected technocrats. Maryland’s Sargent Shriver was a Kennedy brother-in-law. Texas’s Lloyd Bentsen was a protegee of Lyndon B. Johnson and once called for nuking North Korea. Washington’s Henry “Scoop” Jackson was the original front runner who was still referred to be his childhood nickname despite being in his 50s. Alabama’s George Wallace campaigned from his wheelchair. At one point, every candidate had a shot at breaking through but only a few made it to the Convention. How different would America be if Mo Udall or Lloyd Bentsen or Milton Shapp had won in 1976?
If you’re wondering how I know about all of these folks, it’s because I recently ordered a copy of Candidates ’76, a collection of candidate profiles that was put together by Congressional Quarterly. Along with taking a look at their positions on the issues of the day, it also details their individual backgrounds and assesses their prospects. Because Candidates ’76 was written in 1976, there’s no benefit of hindsight here. Instead, it’s an honest historical document, one that was written at a time when no one was sure what the post-Watergate political scene would eventually look like. For a history nerd like me, it’s the type of thing that is fascinating to read.
For the record, the following candidates and potential candidates are profiled in Candidates ’76. Candidates with an asterisk by their name actually ended up on the primary ballot in 1976.
Republicans:
- Gerald Ford*
- Ronald Reagan*
- Nelson Rockefeller
- John B. Connally
- Howard Baker
- Charles Percy
- Charles Mathias
- Elliot Richardson
- Donald Rumsfeld
- George H.W. Bush
Democrats:
- Birch Bayh*
- Lloyd Bentsen*
- James “Jimmy” Carter*
- Frank Church*
- Fred Harris*
- Hubert Humphrey
- Henry Jackson*
- Edward M. Kennedy
- Edmund Muskie
- Terry Sanford*
- Milton Shapp*
- R. Sargent Shriver*
- Morris L. “Mo” Udall*
- George C. Wallace*
- George McGovern
- Jerry Brown*
- Hugh Carey
Independent;
- Eugene McCarthy*
(As far as I can tell, the only candidate that CQ missed was Robert Byrd, who ran as a favorite son in West Virginia. Future Vice President Walter Mondale also ran briefly for President but ended his campaign before Candidates ’76 was put together.)
One of the great things about being a history nerd is that I can find a lot of happiness in reading something like Candidates ’76 and playing the “What If?” game. At a time when misinformation is everywhere and when historical revisionism has been normalized, it’s nice to be able to go back and look at an original document. It’s the next best thing to having a time machine.
