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“Reagan united the base only after picking GWHB for Veep.”

Bush was in the primaries to the last state.

Reagan’s percentages in the last 12 states:

Idaho-83%
Kentucky-82%
Nevada-83%
California-80%
Mississippi-89%
Montana-87%
New Jersey-81%
New Mexico-64%
Ohio-81%
Rhode Island-72%
South Dakota-88%
West Virginia-84%

Looks to me like they were already united prior to GW Bush being picked as the VP.

“Looks to me like they were already united prior to GW Bush being picked as the VP.”

You weren’t old enough to vote then - you said that yourself. I was. I remember that even in the convention, when Reagan unquestionably had the majority of the delegates, there was a SERIOUS question of party unity. People were even floating the idea of Gerry Ford coming in as Veep, to have a kind of “co-Presidency” - just to unify the party to defeat Carter. In the end, of course, that didn’t happen - but the GHWB pick DID. ONLY THEN was the party truly unified.

Oh, just wait until we get to the last dozen or so states this time around - Trump won’t have Kasich and Rubio to contend with, and it’ll be plain that he has a large lead over Cruz, so the numbers should be similar.

Bush suspended his campaign before those primaries. So Reagan was running unopposed and voters who didn’t favor him didn’t go to the polls. That didn’t mean the party was united behind him.