Other than losing the first time he ran for Governor in 1994?
By coincidence, that was the same year that Dubya won his first governor’s race in Texas, setting him up for the presidency in 2000.
Interesting to wonder what might have been of Jeb had won that year and Dubya had lost …
But the winner of that was Davis, from my little looking he was on the first ballot even though he had a poor showing. What makes you say he wasn’t running?
In the absence of a time machine it’s hard to have a definitive cite for what the rules will be. The most recent cycle’s rules changes (must have a majority of delegates from 8 states to be on the convention ballot and tighter binding of delegates) do show the willingness to change rules after all the primaries are over. They also provide some evidence to not being able to vote for someone not on that ballot in the first round under current rules without addressing what happens after that.
If someone can manage to pull a majority of delegates they’ll have the power regardless. If not… who knows what rules the convention will implement.
Given that Real Clear Politics shows him polling 4th in Florida, I’m betting on #2. (with a side order of if Jeb! drops out now, he can spin it as a sacrifice made to help the Republicans nominate a kinda-sane candidate, whereas if he waits until he’s been shellacked in Florida, there’s no way to cast it as anything other than the voters saying “Don’t let the door hit you on the way out!”)
But it shouldn’t be impossible to give an example of it ever happening. As far as I’ve seen, every time someone gives me an example of a non-candidate being nominated it has been wrong. So I think it’s safe to say that Romney getting nominated is essentially not possible.
Polk wasn’t nominated on the first ballot (or the second through seventh ballot), but went on to win his party’s convention. So there’s at least one example, albeit not exactly recent.
I think that’s true, but not because it would be against the rules.
Polk wasn’t nominated on the first ballot, but was he on it?
Sorry, the two meaning of nominated are confusing. I meant that he wasn’t on the first seven ballots. He was only put forward as a candidate on the eight (which he won).
And in Trump’s case, everybody would believe it.
Seven words I never expected I would live to regret reading. A strange year indeed!
Here’s Colbert, a la The Hunger Games, on Jeb!'s failure: Hungry For Power Games: Jeb Has Fallen - YouTube