The 2004 United States presidential election was the 55th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 2, 2004. The Republican ticket of incumbent President George W. Bush and his running mate incumbent Vice President Dick Cheney were elected to a second term, defeating the Democratic ticket of John Kerry, a United States senator from Massachusetts and his running mate John Edwards, a United States senator from North Carolina. At the time Bush's popular vote total was the most votes ever received by a presidential candidate, a total that has since been surpassed; additionally, Kerry's total was the second most. Bush also became the only incumbent president to win re-election after losing the popular vote in the previous election. As of 2020, this is the only presidential election since 1988 in which the Republican nominee won the popular vote. In addition, the higher turnout resulted in both major party nominees setting a record for most popular votes received by a major party candidate for president; both men surpassed Reagan's record from 20 years earlier. A the time, Bush's 62,040,610 votes were the most received by any nominee for president, however, his record would be broken by Obama 4 years later. Bush and Cheney were renominated by their party with no difficulty. Former Vermont governor Howard Dean emerged as the early front-runner in the 2004 Democratic Party presidential primaries, but Kerry won the first set of primaries in January and clinched his party's nomination in March after a series of primary victories. Kerry chose Edwards, who had himself sought the party's 2004 presidential nomination, to be his running mate. Bush's popularity had soared early in his first term after the September 11 attacks in 2001, but it had declined significantly by 2004. Foreign policy was the dominant theme throughout the election campaign, particularly Bush's handling of the war on terror and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Bush presented himself as a decisive leader and attacked Kerry as a "flip-flopper". Kerry criticized Bush's conduct of the Iraq War, despite having voted for it himself. Domestic issues were debated as well, including the economy and jobs, health care, abortion, same-sex marriage and embryonic stem cell research. Bush won by a narrow margin of 35 electoral votes and took 50.7% of the popular vote. He swept the former Confederacy and the Mountain States and took the crucial swing states of Ohio, Iowa, and New Mexico,