At the 1964 Republican National Convention, Smith became the first woman formally nominated for U.S. president by a major political party.
In July 1964, at the Republican National Convention held at the Cow Palace in San Francisco, Margaret Chase Smith's name was formally placed in nomination for President of the United States. She thereby became the first woman ever nominated for the presidency by a major American political party, receiving votes from delegates on the convention floor—though she ultimately lost the nomination to Barry Goldwater.
Smith had announced her candidacy earlier in 1964 and campaigned in several primary states, becoming the first woman to actively seek a major party's presidential nomination and campaign in primaries under her own name, rather than simply being nominated symbolically. She refused corporate contributions and ran a famously frugal campaign funded largely by small individual donations, a reflection of her longstanding independence from party establishment and moneyed interests.
Though sources do not agree on the precise day of the roll-call vote (reports place it in mid-July during the multi-day convention), the nomination itself is a firmly documented milestone. It predated Shirley Chisholm's 1972 Democratic primary run and Geraldine Ferraro's 1984 vice-presidential nomination, making Smith a pioneering figure in the long history of women seeking the American presidency. Her 1964 candidacy is widely cited by historians as a crucial precedent demonstrating that a woman could be taken seriously as a presidential contender within a major party structure, decades before such candidacies became more common.