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The 2000 United States presidential election was the 54th quadrennial D|presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 7, 2000. Incumbent Democratic Vice President under B|Jerry Brown, B|Gary Hart, won the election, defeating Pat Buchanan, a conservative activist, Virginia governor and Republican nominee. It was the first presidential election since 1968, in which a 3rd party was able to win a state, that being Donald Trump of the Reform Party winning Maine.

Incumbent Jerry Brown was ineligible for a third term, and Hart secured the Democratic nomination with relative ease, defeating a challenge by Senator B|Evan Bayh, son of former Senator D|Birch Bayh. Buchanan was seen as the early favorite for the Republican nomination and despite a contentious primary battle with Senator John McCain, secured the nomination. Buchanan chose newspaper and magazine publisher D|Steve Forbes as his running mate, while Hart chose Vermont governor B|Howard Dean as his running mate.

Both major-party candidates focused primarily on domestic issues, such as the budget, tax relief, and reforms for federal social insurance programs which Brown had passed, although foreign policy was not ignored. Due to Hart's B|sex scandal with Donna Rice, much of the public viewed the incumbent Vice President as a 'womanizer'. Republicans denounced Hart's indiscretions, while Hart criticized Buchanan's radicalism, much in the same vein as Jerry Brown's strategy against Bush. Trump, meanwhile, ran a B|blitzkrieg campaign, accusing both parties of corruption and staking himself firmly as a left-leaning populist, despite several controversies during his Presidential run, Trump would go on to win the largest victory in Reform Party history, winning the state of Maine despite not having the popular vote that Ventura did in '92 and '96. Trump also won a single Electoral College vote in the state of New York.

Hart won by a margin of 117 electoral votes and took just 46.0% of the popular vote, the lowest popular vote count for an incumbent President since 1892. He swept the Midwest and the Mountain States and took the crucial swing states of Ohio, Iowa, and Georgia. As of 2022, this is the only presidential election since 1988 in which the Republican nominee won the popular vote. Buchanan flipped Louisiana and won other states that had previously voted for the Democrats, including Indiana, Montana, Arkansas, and Kentucky. Some aspects of the election process were subject to controversy, but not to such a degree that any party's candidate would call a recount. Buchanan won Florida by just a seven-percent margin, the tightest victory in the entire election. In addition, the number of Republicans increased in both houses of Congress in the concurrent congressional elections, which gave them a comfortable congressional majority as Brown entered his second term.

Hart's victory also marks the only time in U.S. history that a winning presidential candidate failed to win any electoral votes in much of the Plains states, and the last time a Republican has carried Virginia. It is the most recent election in which the Democratic nominee won only a single-digit margin of victory in Delaware, New Jersey, Oregon, and Washington, and the most recent time the Republican nominee did so in Arkansas.

Hart served his first term as president and was later succeeded by ■■■■■■ ■■■■■■ ■■■■■, who was elected president in 2008, while Buchanan continued to serve as governor of Virginia. This is the most recent presidential election in which a Republican candidate increased their popular vote count or any incumbent president decreased theirs from their previous election. Trump is the first third party candidate since George Wallace to successfully win a state in an election, winning Maine by just a five-point margin, one of the closest besides Buchanan's victory in Florida.