early victories in Alaska and Louisiana, in addition to a strong second place in the Iowa caucuses and a surprising victory in the small but key New Hampshire primary. Buchanan's New Hampshire win alarmed the Republican "establishment" sufficiently as to provoke prominent Republicans to quickly coalesce around Dole, and Dole won every primary starting with North and South Dakota. Dole resigned his Senate seat on June 11 and the Republican National Convention formally nominated Dole on August 15, 1996, for president. Popular primaries vote: Bob Dole – 8,427,601 (59.2%) Pat Buchanan – 3,021,935 (21.2%) Steve Forbes – 1,425,998 (10.0%) Lamar Alexander – 495,590 (3.5%) Alan Keyes – 449,536 (3.2%) Richard Lugar – 127,111 (0.9%) Unpledged – 123,765 (0.9%) Phil Gramm – 71,457 (0.5%) Bob Dornan – 42,141 (0.3%) Morry Taylor – 21,180 (0.1%) Convention tally: Bob Dole – 1928 Pat Buchanan – 43 Phil Gramm – 2 Alan Keyes – 1 Robert Bork – 1 Not voting – 15 Former Representative and Housing Secretary Jack Kemp was nominated by acclamation for vice president, the following day. This was the only Republican ticket between 1980 and 2008 that did not include a member of the Bush family. Reform Party nomination Candidates gallery The United States Reform Party had great difficulty in finding a candidate willing to run in the general election. Lowell Weicker, Tim Penny, David Boren and Richard Lamm were among those who toyed with the notion of seeking its presidential nomination, though all but Lamm decided against it; Lamm had himself come close to withdrawing his name from consideration. Lamm designated Ed Zschau as his vice presidential candidate. Ultimately, the Reform Party nominated its founder Ross Perot from Texas in its first election as an official political party. Although Perot easily won the nomination, his victory at the party's national convention led to a schism as supporters of Lamm accused him of rigging the vote to prevent them from casting their ballots. This faction walked out of the national convention and eventually formed their own group, the American Reform Party, and attempted to convince Lamm to run as an Independent in the general election; Lamm declined, pointing out a promise he made before running that he would respect the Party's final decision. Economist Pat Choate was nominated for Vice President. Minor parties and independents Parties in this section obtained ballot access in enough states to theoretically obtain the minimum