What if Al Gore became president instead of George Bush?

Read time: 5 minutes

In brief:

• The 2000 US presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore was extremely close, ultimately decided by 537 votes in Florida and a controversial Supreme Court decision, with Bush becoming president despite Gore winning the popular vote.
• As a part of their ‘what if’ series, The News Agents discuss how things might have played out if Al Gore was named president.
• The US might have avoided the Iraq War and taken a more proactive approach to climate change, potentially altering the trajectory of American political history.

The 2000 election of Republican George W. Bush vs Democrat Al Gore was described by The News Agents as “tantalizing”, “a nail biter” and “the election that divided the country”.

It was the most neck-and-neck race the country had ever seen, with vote-counting going on for weeks and no clear indicator of who exactly would become the next president of the United States.

It’s no wonder then that ‘what if Al Gore had become president?’ was one of the most-asked questions listeners emailed in for The News Agents special ‘What If’ Christmas series - a string of episodes looking at some of the biggest ‘sliding doors’ moments in recent political history.

What happened in the 2000 presidential election?

We now know that George W. Bush became the 43rd US president, but at the time there were moments when it looked like Gore would take the win - and if he did, the political landscape in America could have looked very different to how it does today.

On election night in 2000, as votes were counted, Gore soon reached 266 electoral votes, just four away from the 270 needed to win. Bush was on 246 - but Florida was still to be counted.

“It all came down to Florida, which we now think of as the home of MAGA-ism and Trumpism. But at that time it was the swingest of swing states,” Lewis Goodall recalls.

“Something really weird happens on the night - it is called for Bush by the networks. And then Gore concedes the election to Bush.

“But then, as the votes keep coming in, you can see the margin is getting tighter and tighter. Gore actually retracts that concession, and so does Fox.”

At this point, a recount seemed in order.

“Florida was so confused, it did not yield a clear winner on the night,” says Emily Maitlis.

Chaos ensued at the realisation that there were confusing punch cards, known as ‘hanging chads’, where candidates had only punched out a portion of the paper.

“The most powerful person on the planet was going to be decided on the basis of whether the punch hole had gone through properly on the ballot paper,” Jon Sopel recalls.

The decision was ultimately made by the US Supreme Court in a move considered to be so controversial, Jon believes it “started the erosion of trust” in the institution.

With five Republican nominated Justices to the Democrats four, the vote swung in favour of Bush with a margin of just 537 votes out of six million cast and he was named President.

“What is important to note is that the decision was made by lawyers in the end, because if it had been recounted on a county basis, they think Bush would have won. If it had been recounted on a state basis, they think Gore would have won,” Emily says.

This was a “pivotal turning point,” Lewis says.

“Forget the recount element of it. If just 537 people decided to vote the other way, then Gore may well have become president.”

How would Gore have responded to 9/11?

It was less than a year later that America faced one its most seminal events of the 21st century - 9/11.

Emily, Jon and Lewis agree that Bin Laden would have struck the twin towers no matter who was inaugurated that year, but things might have been very different if the Democrats were dictating the response to the deadly terror attack.

“I think it is very hard to see how the Iraq war happens with President Gore,” Lewis says.

“Gore opposed the Iraq war in a run up to the invasion, unlike some Democrats, like Hillary Clinton, for example, or Joe Biden, Gore publicly in 2002 opposed the Iraq War and suggested that the Bush administration was using 9/11 as a pretense to invade Iraq.

“And I think that if you don't have Iraq, I think the whole recent American political history is very, very different.”

This chain of events, Lewis thinks, might have ultimately led to Donald Trump winning the presidency 15 years later.

“I don't think you get Donald Trump without two things; the financial crisis, which basically delegitimizes the political system,and you don't get him without Iraq.

“Iraq was a crucial stepping stone to the post-truth world.”

How would Al Gore have dealt with climate change?

After his narrow loss in the 2000 election Al Gore went on to be one of the world’s leading climate change activists.

“Did Gore fall back onto the question of climate change because he needed to find his niche after he wasn't president. Or would he have literally put it right at the very heart of government?” Emily ponders.

Shortly after taking office George W. Bush announced he would not implement the 1997 Kyoto protocol. The protocol - which was brokered by then Vice President Al Gore - was aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and global warming.

Climate-sceptic Bush said during his 2000 election campaign: “We do not know how much our climate could or will change in the future. We do not know how fast change will occur, or even how some of our actions could impact it.”

Since then, sea levels have risen more than 2-1/2 inches on average and weather disasters worldwide have risen by 42% according to the Associated Press.

“Would we be in a totally different world in terms of where we are with COP? Where we are with carbon emissions?

“Would we have absolutely revolutionised the world if Al Gore had been president?”

Listen to the latest episode of The News Agents.