This Vox article by Matt Grossmann recounts that Donald Trump sought the Reform Party presidential nomination in 2000. The theme of the story is that Pat Buchanan bested Trump. That is misleading. Donald Trump dropped out of contention early in the process. If he had stayed in, he probably would have defeated Buchanan.

The article makes passing reference to Trump’s entering two Reform Party presidential primaries and winning both of them. Those were the California and Michigan Reform presidential primaries. What the article does not say is that Buchanan didn’t even enter any Reform Party presidential primaries. The article also does not say that John Hagelin did remain in the race and did fight against Buchanan, and Hagelin put up a good fight. The Reform Party in 2000 had a mail ballot across the U.S. The vote was: Buchanan 49,529; Hagelin 28,539. The ballot was sent to all voters who signed a ballot access petition for the Reform Party or either of its presidential candidates, all voters registered with the Reform Party, and all other voters who requested a ballot.

The evidence is clear that Buchanan cheated. He submitted 500,000 names to the committee handling the mail ballot, and claimed they were all people who had signed his ballot access petitions, but a state-by-state breakdown makes it obvious that most of the names on Buchanan’s list weren’t people who had signed a petition. Hagelin did not have the clout to contest this behavior, but Trump certainly would have. For more details about the Reform Party’s 2000 all-mail presidential primary, see the September 1, 2000 printed Ballot Access News.