1992 presidential election
When Brown announced his intention to run for president against President George H. W. Bush, many in the media and his own party dismissed his campaign as having little chance of gaining significant support. Ignoring them, Brown embarked on a grassroots campaign to, in his own words, "take back America from the confederacy of corruption, careerism, and campaign consulting in Washington". In his stump speech, first used while announcing his candidacy on the steps of Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Brown said he would accept campaign contributions from individuals only and that he would not accept more than $100. Continuing with his reform theme, he assailed what he dubbed "the bipartisan Incumbent Party in Washington" and called for term limits for members of Congress. Citing various recent scandals on Capitol Hill, particularly the recent House banking scandal and the large congressional pay raises of 1990, he promised to put an end to Congress being a "Stop-and-Shop for the moneyed special interests".
As Brown campaigned in various primary states, he expanded his platform beyond a policy of strict campaign finance reform. Although he focused on a variety of issues during the campaign, he highlighted his endorsement of living wage laws and opposition to free trade agreements such as NAFTA; he mostly concentrated on his tax policy, which had been created specifically for him by Arthur Laffer, the famous supporter of supply-side economics who created the Laffer curve. This plan, which called for the replacement of the progressive income tax with a flat tax and a value added tax, both at a fixed 13% rate, was decried by his opponents as regressive. Nevertheless, it was endorsed by The New York Times, The New Republic, and Forbes, and its raising of taxes on corporations and elimination of various loopholes that tended to favor the very wealthy proved popular with voters. Various opinion polls at the time found that as many as three-quarters of Americans believed the current tax code was biased toward the wealthy. Jesse Walker wrote in The American Conservative that he "seemed to be the most left-wing and right-wing man in the field ... [calling] for term limits, a flat tax, reforming social security, and the abolition of the Department of Education". Brown scored surprising wins in Connecticut and Colorado and seemed poised to overtake Clinton.
Due to his limited budget, Brown began to use a mixture of alternative media and unusual fundraising techniques. Unable to pay for actual commercials, he frequently used cable television and talk radio interviews as a form of free media to get his message out. To raise funds, he purchased a toll-free telephone number. During the campaign, Brown's repetition of this number and moralistic language led some to call him a "political televangelist" with an "anti-politics gospel".
Despite poor showings in the Iowa caucus (1.6%) and the New Hampshire primary (8%), Brown won narrow victories in Maine, Colorado, Nevada, and Vermont, but he continued to be considered a small threat for much of the campaign. It was not until shortly after Super Tuesday, when the field had been narrowed to Brown, former senator Paul Tsongas of Massachusetts, and front-runner then-governor Bill Clinton of Arkansas, that Brown began to emerge as a major contender in the eyes of the press. On March 17, Brown received a strong third-place showing in the Illinois and Michigan primaries, and Tsongas dropped out of the race. A week later, he cemented his position as a major threat to Clinton when he eked out a narrow win in the bitterly fought Connecticut primary.
As the press focused on the primaries in New York and Wisconsin, which were held on the same day, Brown, who had taken the lead in polls in both states, made a gaffe: he announced to an audience of various leaders of New York City's Jewish community that, if nominated, he would consider Jesse Jackson as his running mate. Jackson, who had made a pair of antisemitic comments about Jews in general, and New York City's Jews in particular, while running for president in 1984, was still mistrusted by the Jewish community. Jackson also had ties to Louis Farrakhan, infamous for his own antisemitic statements, and to Yasir Arafat, the chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Brown's polling numbers suffered. On April 7, he lost narrowly to Bill Clinton in Wisconsin (37%–34%), and dramatically in New York (41%–26%).
Brown continued to campaign, but won no further primaries. Despite being overwhelmingly outspent, he won upset victories in seven states and his "votes won to the money raised ratio" was by far the best of any candidate's in the race. He had a sizable number of delegates, and a big win in his home state of California would have deprived Clinton of sufficient support to win the Democratic nomination, possibly bringing about a brokered convention. After nearly a month of intense campaigning and multiple debates between the two candidates, Clinton managed to defeat Brown in this final primary, 48% to 41%. Brown did not win the nomination, but was able to boast of one accomplishment: at the following month's Democratic National Convention, he received the votes of 596 delegates on the first ballot, more than any other candidate but Clinton. He spoke at the convention, and to the national viewing audience, yet without endorsing Clinton, through the device of seconding his own nomination. There was animosity between the Brown and Clinton campaigns, and Brown was the first political figure to criticize Bill Clinton over what became known as the Whitewater controversy.
