1988: The year of the boring candidates
In 1988, The presidency of Ronald Regan had ended and the country was in question as to who would be the next President. Of course, many polls showed then Vice President George HW Bush to be the likely Republican Nominee while the question of who would be of who would the Democrat's choice was still unknown. However, on January 3rd, it was revealed that George Bush had gotten a stroke and thus needed to drop out to remain healthy. Because of this, Bob Dole became the front-runner and won several key primary states. By the end of the 1988 Republican primaries, Bob Dole, Jack Kemp and Pat Robertson were the clear winners of multiple states, with Dole becoming the Republican Nominee:
Bob DoleJack KempPat Robertson After winning the Nomination, Dole named former Tennessee Senator Howard Baker as his Running Mate. Almost immediately, Micheal Dukakis, Massachusetts governor at the time and the Democratic Nominee, had a large lead of 8 points over Dole in the polls. While both suffered from monumental problems in a great many things, Dukakis still maintained his lead going into the debates.
After the first debate, Micheal Dukakis was considered the winner as he talked a strong isolationist message and thus, Dole suffered badly in the following days. However, there was surprising support for Third Party Candidate Donald J. Trump, whom was running under his own created party, the
True Compromise Party or TCP with his running mate being Ron Paul of Texas. At one point from September 3rd-September 15th, Trump lead Dukakis and Dole in the polls by a few points and even appeared in the second and third debate while Ron Paul appeared in the Vice Presidential Debate. Despite this, They were behind both major party candidates in the polls for the rest of the race but on Election night, Dukakis would win in a landslide as he carried North Carolina, Virginia, Florida, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Arizona by a slim margin, though many agreed that Trump's candidacy might have changed things a bit.
Gov. Micheal Dukakis (D-MA)/Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-TX): 375/41.4%Sen. Bob Dole (R-KS)/Sen. Howard Baker (R-TN): 163/ 40.1%Mr. Donald J. Trump (TCP-NY)/Rep. Ron Paul (TCP-TX): 18.5% Senate Midterms:
biggest one being Lamar Alexander winning the senate race in Tennessee