I'd really like to know, how did it happen that Ronald Reagan lost the Republican Party presidential primaries in 1976, against Gerald Ford.

And especially, as that was the original thing why Reagan came to my mind at all, was one of the reasons that he got divorced in 1949 and was later elected as the first divorced president of the USA? I mean, he was a candidate of the conservative wing of Republicans, which I think could care about such fact.

From my point of view, there were many arguments against Ford, and according to Wikipedia entry and it's cited sources, all of those facts were used during the campaign. First of all, Ford was in the administration of Richard Nixon, what already speaks for itself. He even grant a presidential pardon to Richard Nixon for his role in the Watergate affair. Also his negotiations about secession of Panama Canal were more in the Democrats' style, and were later continued by Carter, to which Ford finally lost the election. There were also other accusations, like the current situation in Vietnam or signing of Helsinki Accords, what at that time also sounds to me more like Democrats than Republicans.

From my transatlantic perspective and lack of deeper knowledge about America in the 70s, it looks like it should finish with a quick K.O.

This way I wonder if the fact that Reagan was divorced, could be one of the reasons for that. Did Ford try to play this card at all?

Or was it the fact that Reagan was in the Democratic Party before the WW2? What were the main reasons of his fail?