Harold Ford Jr. Quotes

I was at the 1976 Republican Convention in Kansas City. I was running 'Nobody for President' at the time. I printed up these press releases and handed them out to the crowd at the Kemper Arena. 'Nobody keeps campaign promises.' 'Nobody lowers your taxes.' 'Nobody should have that much power.' 'Nobody is in Washington working for you.'

I guess for every government - for many governments, they only have short vision, they only have three-year term or a four-year term. So they have to make sure they get enough support from the voter. So they probably have to deal with more short-term issues which are related to being re-elected.

I have to earn re-election. That's the way I see it.

Any politician in a democracy has to be mindful of public opinion.

If you think too much about being re-elected, it is very difficult to be worth re-electing.

Vote for the man who promises least; he'll be the least disappointing.

Almost every politician running for office comes out with a set of plans so that they can demonstrate how serious they are about fixing the state’s problems. But once the election is over and the candidate takes his or her oath, you rarely here a peep about those plans again. They end up on a shelf somewhere gathering dust.

Re-election campaigns of sitting presidents are always about the sitting president.

Experience shows a particular candidate's election platform has on several occasions changed most radically after he has become President.

In every American election, crazy things are said. Positions are taken which the winners try very hard to forget afterwards.

I'm not going to sell Donald Trump short. I think the American people saw something in him.

I will be sent back to Washington, D.C., with the grace of God and all the Alaskan voters out there because all Alaskans have asked me to go back and continue my service.

If you will trust me with your vote, you can count on me to take those values to Washington.

People's analysis of why to vote with me had to do with how they felt I could handle my family.

There comes a time in every political convention where I eat my words.

No amount of promises to the needy at election time will make the wrong policies rights; nor would lessen the enormous price we have to pay for them.

It would be premature to ask your support in the next election, and it would be inaccurate to thank you for it in the past.

Every four years, presidents claim more than they have accomplished; opponents portray alternative policies in terms that can only later lead to disillusion.

During a political campaign everyone is concerned with what a candidate will do on this or that question if he is elected except the candidate; he's too busy wondering what he'll do if he isn't elected

I didn’t think that I would ever get elected. After all, you don’t vote for somebody who is attacking Santa Claus.

Must politicians only care about bringing home the bacon so that they can get re-elected.

... the inherent conflict and disconnect between campaigning (promising people all that they can have) and governing (explaining to people why they won’t get it).

I don't like to work for politicians because I hate to work on anything that you can't give back if it doesn't work. I sell products. I do a commercial for, say, Meow Mix, and you don't like it, you get your money back. You can return it. Politicians, you can't return. You're with them for four more years. And that's scary.

Rare is the election campaign that truly hinges on a single issue.

People always thought I'd never get elected outside San Francisco; I was always more worried that I'd never get elected again inside San Francisco.