In 1994, more than 350 Republican congressional candidates gathered on the steps of the US Capitol to sign the “Contract with America,” a 10-point platform they pledged to enact if voters sent a GOP majority to the House. The Senate Judiciary Committee deadlocked, 7-7, on the nomination of Clarence Thomas to the US Supreme Court. Bush announced in a nationally broadcast address that he was eliminating all US battlefield nuclear weapons, and called on the Soviet Union to match the gesture.
