The People’s Billionaire

Abstract

Chapter Four begins with Nelson Rockefeller’s March 1968 announcement that he would not run for president. The ultra-rich, larger-than-life governor of New York had supported George Romney as the representative of the moderate Republicans, but the Michigan governor issued a disastrous remark that he had been “brainwashed” about the Vietnam War. In April, Rockefeller injected himself back into the fold. This chapter paints the progressive Republican’s energetic and popular campaign, even as most rank-and-file Republicans sought more conservative alternatives.