This paper examines the education debate in the 2000 presidential election between Al Gore and George W. Bush. It concludes
that Bush put together a focused campaign on the issue, driven by talk of school
accountability and backed by his
education record in Texas, that the Gore campaign was never able to solidly refute. Gore had the lead on the education debate and had stances on education issues that more closely matched those of the average voter, but his campaign was unable to put together a cohesive message on education and in turn could not fight off Bush's advances. In exploring the education debate, this paper considers the idea of issue ownership in campaigns and how Bush overall made up significant ground in the election by pushing on traditionally Democratic issues like education, Social Security, and Medicare. This paper relies heavily on commercials run by each campaign, speeches delivered by each candidate during the race, and the reflections of those working at the top of each campaign.