Having been badly defeated in the 1984 presidential election, the Democrats in 1985 and 1986 were eager to find a new approach to win the presidency. They created the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), with the aim of recruiting a candidate for the 1988 election.[citation needed]
The large gains in the 1986 mid-term elections (which resulted in the Democrats taking back control of the Senate after six years of Republican rule) and the continuing Iran–Contra affair gave Democrats confidence in the run-up to the primary season.[citation needed]
30 NH, MN, ME primary, VT primary FL, HI caucus, ID caucus, MD MA, RI, TX, WA AS caucus, CO caucus, KS caucus CT, WI, AZ caucus, NY, UT caucus, PA, IN OH, NE, OR, CA, MT, NJ, NM, ND
The Democratic front-runner for most of 1987 was former Colorado Senator Gary Hart.[36] Hart had made a strong showing in the 1984 primaries and, after Mondale's defeat in the presidential election, had positioned himself as the moderate centrist many Democrats felt their party would need to win.[37]
However, questions and rumors about possible extramarital affairs and about past debts dogged Hart's campaign.[38] One of the great myths is that Senator Hart challenged the media to "put a tail" on him and that reporters then took him up on that challenge. In fact, Hart had told E. J. Dionne of The New York Times that if reporters followed him around, they would "be bored". However, in a separate investigation, the Miami Herald claimed to have received an anonymous tip from a friend of Donna Rice that Rice was involved with Hart. It was only after Hart had been discovered that the Herald reporters found Hart's quote in a pre-print of The New York Times Magazine.[39]
On May 8, 1987, a week after the Donna Rice story broke, Hart dropped out of the race.[38]
In December 1987, Hart surprised many political pundits by resuming his presidential campaign.[40] He again led in the polls for the Democratic nomination, both nationally and in Iowa. However, the allegations of adultery and reports of irregularities in his campaign financing had delivered a fatal blow to his candidacy, and he fared poorly in the early primaries before dropping out again.[41]
Delaware Senator Joe Biden led a highly competitive campaign which ended in controversy after he was accused of plagiarizing a speech by Neil Kinnock, then-leader of the BritishLabour Party.[42] Though Biden had correctly credited the original author in all speeches but one, the one of which he failed to make mention of the originator was caught on video and sent to the press by members of the Dukakis campaign. In the video Biden is filmed repeating a stump speech by Kinnock, with only minor modifications. Michael Dukakis later acknowledged that his campaign was responsible for leaking the tape, and two members of his staff resigned.[43]
It was also discovered that Biden had been guilty of plagiarism years before, while a student at the Syracuse University College of Law in the 1960s. Though Biden professed his integrity, the impression lingering in the media as the result of this double punch would lead him to drop out of the race.[43] He formally suspended his campaign on September 28, 1987.
The Delaware Supreme Court's Board on Professional Responsibility would later clear Biden of the law school plagiarism charges.[44]
After campaigns in 2008 and 2020, Biden was elected vice president in 2008 and 2012 and president in 2020.
In the Iowa caucuses, Gephardt finished first, Simon finished second, and Dukakis finished third. In the New Hampshire primary, Dukakis finished first, Gephardt finished second, and Simon finished third. Dukakis and Gore campaigned hard against Gephardt with negative ads, and eventually the United Auto Workers retracted their endorsement of Gephardt, who was heavily dependent on labor union backing.
In the Super Tuesday races, Dukakis won six primaries, Gore five, Jackson five and Gephardt one, with Gore and Jackson splitting the southern states. The next week, Simon won Illinois. 1988 is tied with 1992 as the race with the most candidates winning primaries since the McGovern reforms of 1971. Gore's effort to paint Dukakis as too liberal for the general election proved unsuccessful and he eventually withdrew. Jackson focused more on getting enough delegates to make sure African-American interests were represented in the platform than on winning outright.[64] Dukakis eventually emerged as the party's nominee.
Texas State TreasurerAnn Richards (who two years later became the state governor) delivered a memorable keynote address in which she uttered the lines "Poor George [Bush], he can't help it, he was born with a silver foot in his mouth." Six years later, Bush's son George W. Bush would deny Richards re-election as Texas Governor.
With most candidates having withdrawn and asking their delegates to vote for Dukakis, the tally for president was as follows:[132]
Jesse Jackson's campaign believed that since they had come in a respectable second, Jackson was entitled to the vice presidential spot. Dukakis refused, and gave the spot to Lloyd Bentsen.
Bentsen was selected in large part to secure the state of Texas and its large electoral vote for the Democrats. During the vice-presidential debate, Republican candidate and Senator Dan Quayle ignored a head-on confrontation with Bentsen (aside from the "Jack Kennedy" comparison) and spent his time attacking Dukakis.
^Jack W. Germond; Jules Witcover (1989). "19: Illinois and Michigan: Jesse Jackson Peaks". Whose Broad Stripes and Bright Stars? The Trivial Pursuit of the Presidency 1988. Warner Books. p. 298. ISBN0-446-51424-1. Appearing at the press conference were Michigan Senator Don Riegle and three other members of the state's congressional delegation, all endorsing him.
^Jack W. Germond; Jules Witcover (1989). "18: Super Tuesday: A Super Fiasco". Whose Broad Stripes and Bright Stars? The Trivial Pursuit of the Presidency 1988. Warner Books. p. 281. ISBN0-446-51424-1. The black political leaders who had supported Mondale in 1984, such as Mayor Richard Arrington of Birmingham, were now fully in the Jackson camp.
^ abJack W. Germond; Jules Witcover (1989). "18: Super Tuesday: A Super Fiasco". Whose Broad Stripes and Bright Stars? The Trivial Pursuit of the Presidency 1988. Warner Books. p. 286. ISBN0-446-51424-1. ...Gore was moving around the South gathering endorsements - particularly from prominent state politicians such as Speaker Tom Murphy of Georgia, Speaker Gib Lewis of Texas, Speaker Jon Mills of Florida
^Jack W. Germond; Jules Witcover (1989). "16: Iowa: Dick Gephardt's Hour". Whose Broad Stripes and Bright Stars? The Trivial Pursuit of the Presidency 1988. Warner Books. p. 255. ISBN0-446-51424-1. Congressman Tony Coelho paid a visit and also came back with the view that Gephardt needed a much sharper focus to his message that Iowa voters could identify with
^ abJack W. Germond; Jules Witcover (1989). "18: Super Tuesday: A Super Fiasco". Whose Broad Stripes and Bright Stars? The Trivial Pursuit of the Presidency 1988. Warner Books. p. 282. ISBN0-446-51424-1. The backing of allies such as Representatives Martin Frost and Marvin Leath in Texas...
^Jack W. Germond; Jules Witcover (1989). "18: Super Tuesday: A Super Fiasco". Whose Broad Stripes and Bright Stars? The Trivial Pursuit of the Presidency 1988. Warner Books. p. 282. ISBN0-446-51424-1. The backing of allies such as Representatives Martin Frost and Marvin Leath in Texas, Mike Synar in Oklahoma...
^Jack W. Germond; Jules Witcover (1989). "18: Super Tuesday: A Super Fiasco". Whose Broad Stripes and Bright Stars? The Trivial Pursuit of the Presidency 1988. Warner Books. p. 282. ISBN0-446-51424-1. The backing of allies such as Representatives Martin Frost and Marvin Leath in Texas, Mike Synar in Oklahoma and Claude Pepper in Florida was a valued credential.
^Jack W. Germond; Jules Witcover (1989). "19: Illinois and Michigan: Jesse Jackson Peaks". Whose Broad Stripes and Bright Stars? The Trivial Pursuit of the Presidency 1988. Warner Books. p. 299. ISBN0-446-51424-1. Congressman Sander Levin of Michigan, a Gephardt supporter...
^Jack W. Germond; Jules Witcover (1989). "13: Too Much Damage to Control". Whose Broad Stripes and Bright Stars? The Trivial Pursuit of the Presidency 1988. Warner Books. p. 195. ISBN0-446-51424-1. There were other phone calls, too, including repeated ones from actor Warren Beatty, a longtime supporter and friend going back to the McGovern campaign of 1971-72
^Jack W. Germond; Jules Witcover (1989). "16: Iowa: Dick Gephardt's hour". Whose Broad Stripes and Bright Stars? The Trivial Pursuit of the Presidency 1988. Warner Books. p. 263. ISBN0-446-51424-1. Simon got a lift from the endorsement of the Des Moines Register, influential with the sort of political activists who attended the caucuses.
^Williams, Juan (1988-07-17). "Waiting for The Jackson Reaction; Will Jesse End His Crusade With a Bang or a Whimper?". The Washington Post. p. C1.
^Robert S. Boyd; Susan Bennett (February 9, 1988). "Dole, Gephardt take Iowa". Google News Search Archive. Spartanburg, SC: Spartanburg Herald-Journal. pp. 1, 3. Retrieved 1 November 2017.
^Robert S. Boyd; Susan Bennett (February 17, 1988). "Bush, Dukakis score big wins". Google News Search Archive. Spartanburg, SC: Spartanburg Herald-Journal. pp. 1, 4. Retrieved 1 November 2017.
^New Hampshire. Dept. of State (1989). Manual for the General Court. University of New Hampshire Library. Concord, N.H. : Dept. of State. pp. 132, 153.
^ abRobert S. Boyd; Susan Bennett (February 24, 1988). "Dole scores impressive victories". Google News Search Archive. Spartanburg, SC: Spartanburg Herald-Journal. pp. 1, 4. Retrieved 1 November 2017.
^Rothberg, Donald M. (March 16, 1988). "Simon win clouds Democratic race". Google News Search Archive. Lawrence Journal-World. p. 1A. Retrieved 7 November 2017.
^"Democrats stump as New York primary nears". Google News Search Archive. Lakeland Ledger. April 17, 1988. p. 5A. Retrieved 23 September 2023. Arizona Democrats, whose favorite son, former Gov. Bruce Babbitt, was an early casualty in the Democratic race, held caucuses on Saturday to allocate 36 delegates.
^"White Catholics Hold Key in New York". Google News Search Archive. Eugene Register-Guard. April 19, 1988. p. 3A. Retrieved 23 September 2023. The delegates selected Monday will attend the state convention May 23, where Delaware's 15 national convention delegates will be chosen.
^"Dukakis wins Indiana, Bayh Overwhelms Rival". Google News Search Archive. Toledo Blade. May 4, 1988. p. 4A. Retrieved 23 September 2023. The state will send 79 delegates to the Democratic convention and 51 to the Republican meeting.
^Hallett, Joe (May 4, 1988). "Dukakis Landslide Buries Jackson in Ohio, Indiana; MARTA Levy Wins Easily". Google News Search Archive. Toledo Blade. pp. 1A, 4A. Retrieved 23 September 2023. Mr. Ravolo projected that Mr. Dukakis won 115 of the 159 Ohio delegates up for grabs, with Mr. Jackson garnering 41.
^"Dukakis wins Indiana, Bayh Overwhelms Rival". Google News Search Archive. Toledo Blade. May 4, 1988. p. 4A. Retrieved 23 September 2023. Mr. Jackson, who hadn't won a primary since March 20 in Puerto Rico, gained 13 delegates in the district, and Mr. Dukakis, 3.
^"Bush, Dukakis Say the Race is On". Google News Search Archive. Toledo Blade. June 8, 1988. pp. 1A, 5A. Retrieved 23 September 2023. Mr. Dukakis had gained 15 delegates; Mr. Jackson gained 4.