Buchanan Plans First Step Toward Presidential Race

Commentator Patrick J. Buchanan, a pugnacious proponent of conservative economic populism, plans to take the first formal step toward entering the 1996 Republican presidential race today, advisers said Wednesday.

Buchanan, who challenged then-President George Bush in the 1992 Republican primaries, will announce that he is forming an exploratory committee that will allow him to begin raising money for the 1996 contest, the sources said. Politicians typically form such committees as a prelude to formally entering a race.

In a statement scheduled for release today, Buchanan said he is moving toward the race because the GOP needs a candidate who “will complete the conservative revolution that began in 1992 and 1994.”

In 1992, Buchanan won a strong vote against Bush in economically pressed New Hampshire but saw his appeal flag as the primary season went on. Though he has a powerful emotional appeal to the party’s most conservative elements--including the burgeoning ranks of conservative Christians--it remains to be seen whether he can attract sufficient financial and political support to emerge as more than a vehicle of protest.

At the least, though, Buchanan would shake up the debate in the GOP contest. He is known primarily for his staunchly conservative stands on social issues. His statement today will warn the GOP against backing off its opposition to abortion.

In recent years, he also has become the most aggressive proponent of a conservative economic nationalism that looks suspiciously on free trade, immigration and U.S. military engagement abroad.