From the Encyclopedia Americana, "Reagan, Ronald"

    As governor, Reagan became one of several widely known conservative politicians who wanted to restrict government involvement in the economy and society.  In 1968, during his first term as governor, he entered the race for the Republican presidential nomination.  He lost the nomination to Richard M. Nixon, who went on to be defeated by Hubert Humphrey.
    Reagan, who had spent years making political friends at party fund-raising dinners around the country, announced his candidacy again in November 1971.  He became the immediate favorite to capture the nomination and easily defeated his rivals for the Republican nomination.  At the Republican convention, delegates adopted a conservative political program for the party.  House Minority Leader Gerald Ford was nominated for Vice President.

From the Encyclopedia Americana, "Humphrey, Hubert"

Election of 1972-
    By the time President Humphrey prepared for re-election, the country showed signs of economic recovery.  In addition, the unpopular war in Vietnam was over and Humphrey was experiencing a popularity boost from that.  The Republicans, however, had nominated the charismatic, if radically conservative, Governor Reagan of California.  On a campaign that mirrored that of Goldwater, Reagan attacked Humphrey's liberal policies on all fronts.
    The media portrayed Reagan as a danger to the world, opposing arms treaties and attacking the administration on the peace in Vietnam.  In attacking the various arms control treaties that Humphrey had signed, Reagan also attacked the agreement between the US and USSR that allowed the USSR to buy large amounts of wheat from American farmers.  This alienated many farmers in America, who feared that a Reagan presidency would hurt them.
    Reagan, however, was able to score a political coup in winning the support of former Presidential candidate George Wallace.  Humphrey's stance against CORE was able to moderate the public's view of him, except in the South where the Justice Department continued to prosecute segregated schools passionately.  This was the first election to allow 18-20 year-olds to vote, something that many originally believed would benefit Humphrey more than Reagan.

From the Encyclopedia Americana, "Wallace, George"

    Wallace was again elected governor of Alabama in 1970.  On June 19, 1972, while campaigning for the Republican presidential candidate Ronald Reagan, he was shot while speaking to a crowd in Kent, Ohio, by a former Vietnam veteran, James Rockwell.  Wallace, partially paralyzed as a result of the shooting, continued to campaign for Ronald Reagan across the South from his wheelchair.

From the Encyclopedia Americana, "Reaganomics"

    During the 1972 election, Governor Reagan supported scaling back the size of government.  Originally just a title used by foes for his economic proposals, the term Reaganomics was expanded by its supporters to include the conservatism of the Republican Party.  Based on supply-sided economics, Reagan advocated a reduction in taxes and government spending in order to leave more money in the hands of citizens.  According to supply-side theory, citizens would spend the money on products or services, which would give a boost to the economy, or they would invest the money in businesses, which would cause the economy to expand.  Initially government revenues would be reduced by the tax cuts.  However, supply-side theorists believed that the resulting economic growth would eventually increase taxable income, which, in turn, would cause government revenues to grow.
    Other proposals of Reagan during the campaign were put under the term Reaganomics, which soon became something like a political philosophy to its followers.  Believing that political centralization creates many of the ills of society, Reagan supported spreading down civic functions down to the lowest level of government possible.  At the top, Reaganomics supported the government forming goals and standards, but leave implementation to the smallest viable scales.  Included in this general scaling back of the government, Reagan supported faith-based initiatives to replace much of the welfare system in place already.

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