Richard Nixon Gerald Ford From January 6 to July 14, 1976, voters of the Republican Party chose its nominee for president in the 1976 United States presidential election.

On September 8, Ford's first major act in office was to grant a full and unconditional pardon for any crimes Richard Nixon might have committed against the United States while president.

[2] The economy was in dire condition upon Ford's elevation, marked by the worst peacetime inflation in American history and the highest interest rates in a century.

His administration was marked by efforts to dismantle the welfare state and a high-profile crackdown on urban crime and left-wing dissent, especially at the University of California, Berkeley.

He also led an effort to enforce the state's capital punishment laws but was blocked by the California Supreme Court in the People v. Anderson decision.

Conservative opposition to Ford within the Republican Party began to surface in December 1974, following his appointment of New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller as vice president.

In March, discussion of Reagan's presidential prospects began to grow following an appearance on The Tonight Show and a profile in Newsweek that called him "the most kinetic single presence in American political life."

"[7] While Ford regained some support from conservatives following the rescue of the SS Mayaguez in Cambodia,[8] he soon drew the ire of the party's right wing with a series of foreign policy moves designed to improve relations with the Soviet Union.

First, President Ford refused to meet with Soviet dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn on his visit to the United States on June 21.

In response, Reagan publicly criticized Ford by name for the first time in his national newspaper column, contrasting the popular Solzhenitsyn to other "guests the President had entertained in the White House, "the Strawberry Queen of West Virginia and the Maid of Cotton.

Conservatives and anti-communists harshly criticized Ford for capitulating to Soviet demands and formally recognizing the Eastern bloc.

[16] That same day, Ford fired Secretary of Defense James R. Schlesinger, whose critical comments on the Helsinki summit had been leaked to the press earlier in the fall.

[citation needed] During the first six contests, Reagan followed the "eleventh commandment" he used during his initial campaign for governor of California: "Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican.

Ford bounced back to win his home state of Michigan, and from there, the two candidates engaged in an increasingly bitter nip-and-tuck contest for delegates.

[22] Former Texas governor John Connally speculated that Reagan's attacks weakened Ford in the general election against his opponent and eventual successor, Jimmy Carter.