Sharing My Story

1976 proved to be a pivotal year for my life
in terms of political activism. I had already
committed this period of my life to spiritual
awakening through my work with Campus
Crusade. 1976 was the bi-centennial year for
the United States and also a presidential
election year.

It didn’t seem likely that President Ford
could be elected (especially after his pardon
of former President Nixon). Ronald Reagan,
then former two-term California governor,
decided to run for the Republican nomination
against the two year incumbent Gerald Ford.
I had been following Reagan’s career over the
years since “the Speech” in 1964 for Barry
Goldwater. I came to the conclusion that
Reagan was not just a “dumb actor” but that
he was an intelligent, articulate man of
conservative principle and action. While
I thought it would be an uphill fight for
Reagan to wrestle the nomination away
from Ford I felt that Reagan was the
better man for the job.

Another Campus Crusade staff member
and then housemate, Steve Bradshaw
and I decided to do some volunteer work
for the the Reagan candidacy.
We showed up at the Reagan for President
headquarters in San Bernardino in the spring
of 1976 and were put to work doing office tasks
like stuffing campaign mailers and manning
the telephone banks. The telephoning consisted
of calling Republican voters (California at that
time was a closed primary) and asking them if
they needed information on Reagan and
encouraging them to vote in the primary.
Reagan won the primary in California which
was very gratifying to this neophyte political
volunteer. I realized Reagan had a long way to
go to secure the nomination.

I thought that if Reagan at least won 800 delegates
that that would send a real message to the
Republican establishment. At the convention
Reagan got over 1000 delegates but not enough
to overcome narrow Ford’s lead. While I was
disappointed I realized it was not Reagan’s time.
In the end Ford lost to Democrat Jimmy Carter.