Changes
/* 2000 Presidential race */
==2000 Presidential race==
The 2000 primary season was marked by splits in the party. Two-time Republican primary hopeful [[Patrick Buchanan]] announced he was leaving the [[Republican Party]] to seek the Presidential nomination of the Reform Party. Ross Perot did not seek the 2000 nomination. Buchanan's main opponent in the 2000 Reform primaries was [[John Hagelin]], who had twice run for President on the [[Natural Law Party]] ticket, which advocated transcendental meditation (TM). Despite Hagelin's background in TM, opponents of Buchanan rallied around him as their best hope to stop Buchanan from winning the nomination. An unrelated split in the party occurred when a faction, including Jesse Ventura and term limits activist Jack Gargan, believed Perot had too much say over the party. Ventura's Minnesota chapter of the Reform Party left the party to become the Independence Party of Minnesota. Buchanan would go on to win the nomination at which point Hagelin's supporters walked out of the convention, held their own rump convention and named Hagelin the Reform Party nominee. The states recognized Buchanan as the legitimate nominee. Buchanan would win about 1/4 of 1% of the popular vote in the 2000 general election. Perot himself washed his hands of the Reform Party in 2000 and refused to endorse Buchanan.
Additionally, an unknown number of votes, possibly in the thousands, were mistakenly cast for Buchanan instead of Democratic candidate [[Al Gore]] in [[Florida]]. Due to voter confusion on the now-infamous [[butterfly ballot]], voters cast votes for Buchanan believing they were voting for Gore. As a result, Buchanan got far more votes in Florida than the Reform Party had in 1996. Buchanan himself acknowledged that most of those votes were meant for Gore.
==After 2000==
