Governor Milton Shapp of Pennsylvania unsuccessfully sought the Democratic Party nomination for president of the United States in the 1976 election. Shapp won reelection as governor of Pennsylvania in the 1974 election, the first Pennsylvania governor to be elected to a second four-year term following an amendment permitting this in 1967, and had hoped to translate his relative popularity in Pennsylvania into the groundwork of a successful presidential campaign.
Shapp ran on a platform of bifurcating the United States federal budget into short-term and long-term expenditure and a reduction of the federal funds rate to reduce inflation. The campaign attempted a strategy of amassing votes and Democratic National Convention delegates in the Northeastern United States in order to generate momentum and expand into a national campaign while galvanizing more widespread support. This strategy proved unsuccessful, however, and Shapp had poor showings in the early primaries, both within the northeast and elsewhere. Considered a long-shot for the nomination, Shapp withdrew from the race after a poor showing in the Massachusetts and Florida primaries.
Background
Shapp entered politics in 1960 as an active supporter of John F. Kennedy's successful presidential campaign during that year's election. In correspondence with President Kennedy's brother Robert, Shapp played a role in the creation of the Peace Corps and served as an adviser in that organization during the Kennedy administration. Following his service in the Peace Corps, Shapp mounted his first campaign for governor of Pennsylvania in the 1966 election. Shapp ran as the anti-political machine candidate and defeated the machine-endorsed candidate, future governor Bob Casey Sr., in the Democratic primary. However, he went on to lose the general election to Republican Raymond P. Shafer, who was then serving as lieutenant governor under Bill Scranton.
Shapp again sought the governorship in the 1970 election, in which incumbent Governor Shafer was not a candidate for reelection (having been barred from running since he was elected prior to the 1967 amendment permitting successive four-year terms). He again defeated Bob Casey Sr. for the Democratic nomination, but this time was victorious in the general election. He defeated Shafer's lieutenant governor, Republican Raymond J. Broderick, and entered office in January 1971. Having gained a reputation as a populist and a consumer advocate, Shapp won re-election in the 1974 election, defeating Republican Drew Lewis.
Campaign highlights
After expressing a serious interest in and an intention to run in the 1976 election in mid-1975, Shapp announced his candidacy for the presidency of the United States on September 25, 1975, in Washington, D.C. Shapp's campaign focused primarily on reforming the United States federal budget, splitting it into two separate budgets: a perpetually balanced operating budget meant to fund day-to-day government expenditure and an "investment" budget meant to fund long-term initiatives, such as infrastructure improvement and research into energy sources. In particular, for the investment budget, Shapp proposed a six-fold increase in federal education expenditure (to $50 billion in 1976 dollars per year) and improvements to railroads (totaling $13 billion in 1976 dollars). In an interview with the Associated Press in January 1976, Shapp indicated that he did not have an estimate of the total size of the respective budgets, though did say that he planned to fund the additional expenditures via the national debt, as well as a surcharge on the federal income tax together with other surcharges, which he claimed would help to pay down the additional accrued principal and interest on the debt. Shapp also called for reducing the federal funds rate, which he claimed would slow inflation. Among those who endorsed Shapp for president was U.S. senator and future president Joe Biden of Delaware.