Who am I? Well, my name is Vee.
What are you doing here? I have absolutely no clue.
Go away! No.
The Jesse Jackson campaign, 1988
It seemed the entire nation was waiting for the announcement on whether or not Mario Cuomo, then Governor of New York, would run for the Democratic nomination
for President of the United States. It would take until February 24th, 1987, for him to address the topic at all in public. Sitting down with Walter Cronkite for
a special televised event, Cuomo announced he was, in fact, a candidate for the Democratic nomination. Immediately he was the clear frontrunner.
Gary Hart, the outgoing senator from Colorado, had himself been planning on running for the nomination, but started to seriously rethink this once Cuomo made
his announcement. He decided to feel out the rest of the field, and it became clear that there might really only be one other serious candidate: Jesse Jackson.
The two men had faced off against each other in 1984, so why couldn't they work together now to make sure Cuomo wouldn't waltz into the nomination? A meeting was
set up between them, Hart having already pubically announced he wouldn't be running in 1988.
Jackson himself was very suspicious, not knowing the intention behind Hart suggesting the meeting. The two men had both seriously campaigned in 1984, and both
indeed lost. So when Hart offered to come onto Jackson's campaign staff (which didn't really exist at this point) as chief strategist, Jackson was nearly
speechless. But, for some incredible reason, he ultimately felt compelled to accept-- but not until they had several meetings.
The first thing the pair did was convince Charles Manatt, former DNC Chairman, to join as the campaign chair. Then, the three together picked Jane Byrne,
former Mayor of Chicago (and indeed the first woman elected mayor in a major city in the United States), to be the campaign manager. James Carville and Paul
Begala then joined the campaign team, due to their successful gubernatorial election of Robert Casey of Pennsylvania in 1986. Lester Thurow was hired to head
the economic advisory panel, due to his connections to Hart from the 1972 McGovern campaign.
The entire team was shocked when Dianne Feinstein, Mayor of San Fransico, announced she was running for the Democratic nomination before Jackson had himself.
It took the political community by surprise, as no one had heard any rumors or whispers before the announcement. Jackson's team worried she would take away support
from him instead of Cuomo, but Jackson assured everyone they were going to win this time.
Finally, on July 17th, 1987, Jackson called a press conference and announced to the nation that he was indeed running for the Democratic nomination. He fielded
questions for two hours, covering topics ranging from his view of the Iran-Contra scandal to what he liked to eat for breakfast. He proved to be very well prepared,
and the national media covered the announcement in a favorable light, but he was still considered a long shot to win compared to Cuomo. Jackson went to campaigning.
The first tour the campaign would take would be in Iowa, mainly due to the fact that, so far, Cuomo had largely ignored the state. The Governor of New York
was taking the early states for granted, it was felt, because he believed he already had the election in the bag. Jackson, on the other hand, understood the
importance of Iowa and New Hampshire especially, but he and his team both recognized New Hampshire might be a lost cause, due to how much time Cuomo and Feinstein
were spending there. Cuomo had also already started campaigning in the Super Tuesday states, which Jackson knew put him at a disadvantage.
Campaigning in Iowa awakened something within Jackson, and it was sometime during that first tour that he finally decided that yes, he did indeed want to win.
After the inital tour, Jackson and the campaign team traveled to New Hampshire, the candidate having decided they must contest every election if they hoped to win.
They did town halls, breakfasts, coffees, meet and greets, and much and more. Slowly, the real money started to trickle in.
As if it was all of a sudden, they were preparing for the first televised debate between the three candidates, and they were also designing their first
commercial. Jackson had no wish to go negative, so the commercial simply showcased who he was and what he had to offer the nation. They used the commercial to
announce the core platform of his campaign: they would advance the cause of blacks, the poor, the displaced, the disenfranchised. They would institute universal
health care. They would rebuild America's infrastructure, and would end the War on Drugs and declare the War on Addiction. These would prove to be the major
issues the Jackson team would focus on throughout the rest of the campaign.
Finally at the first debate, Cuomo got a rude awakening that he would not be simply handed the nomination, he would still have to earn it. Feinstein and
Jackson found themselves agreeing and teaming up on Cuomo maybe a little too much, but the reviews were better than the Jackson team were expecting. It was said
that Cuomo looked shocked, Feinstein looked lost, and Jackson looked half-presidential. The nation expected Cuomo to come out guns blazing, but instead he
disappointed by not being able to hold off the opposing tag team pair. All the while, Jackson himself was quick to differianate himself from Feinstein.
Somehow, despite the expectations of the nation, Jackson came out of the debate looking the best out of the three.
The narrative slowly began to change, and after a few more months of campaigning and a couple more debates, Feinstein dropped out, saying she didn't believe
the electoral path made sense for her to stay in the race any longer. Both candidates vied for her endorsement, and ultimately she announced she was supporting
Jackson over Cuomo for personal reasons. It was a victory for the Jackson team no matter how she phrased it.
Almost too soon, it was election day in Iowa, with both Jackson and Cuomo in the state doing last minute campaigning. The Jackson team, particularly
campaign manager Jane Byrne, spent huge amounts of time organizing in the state and as such, everyone felt very hopeful. It was a nerve wrecking night, with
results slow to get in. Eventually it was clear: Cuomo 42%, Jackson 36%, Feinstein 7%, Undecided 15%
The massive amounts of hard work had paid off, and the narrative had really changed then. Suddenly Cuomo wasn't the heir apparent anymore, and the possibility
of having a black man represent the Democratic Party as their nominee for President of the United States seemed very, very real in a way it never had in 1984.
The Jackson team immediately claimed it as a victory, despite not outright winning. Jackson himself gave a short speech thanking the voters and volunteers of
Iowa and immediately got on a plane to head to New Hampshire.
He had been campaigning all over in the months leading up to these first primaries, but with the election in New Hampshire barely ten days away, it was
important he make his presence known there as Cuomo was spending his time in the Southern Super Tuesday states. It was on the flight that they received the news
that Senator Joe Biden of Delaware had entered the race after seeing the Iowa results and realizing Cuomo was weaker than thought. Hart was glad to hear the news,
whereas Jackson preferred only running against one other candidate. Nevertheless, it was too late for Biden to compete until the Vermont primary.
Cuomo, in a move the public perceived as a freak out, rushed back to New Hampshire and rather quickly a debate (leaving out Biden) was organized by the
two campaign teams. The Governor of New York performed well, but Jackson more than held his own and the press determined that Cuomo lost. Still, with New
Hampshire being right next door to New York, the Jackson team managed expectations. So they were happily surprised by the election night results:
Cuomo 54%, Jackson 37%, Feinstein 1%, 8% Undecided
The next states up were Minnesota and South Dakota, and under the direction of James Carville and Paul Begala, the campaign had spent considerable resources
in these states, knowing they had to make a statement in one but probably both. Jackson had secured the endorsement of George McGovern, 1972 Democratic nominee
and South Dakota native, and the team felt comfortable there. Minnesota was a true battleground between the two campaigns, and it even the polling was very, very
tight. If Jackson didn't win one of the states, he was prepared to withdraw his name from contention. He wouldn't have to...
Minnesota: Jackson 48%, Cuomo 40%, Undecided 12% and South Dakota: Jackson 52%, Cuomo 43%, Undecided 5%
The Jackson campaign team were ecstatic with the results, as now the momentum was theirs to lose. Immediately they all went and did rounds on the TV news
circuit, singing from the rooftops about their victories. Next came the Maine primary, and then the wild card named Joe Biden would start to factor in with the
Vermont primary. Biden had already started campaigning, but he was playing catch up, and Jackson knew he had to win Super Tuesday big.
Maine: Cuomo 57%, Jackson 39%, Undecided 4%
Vermont: Biden 33%, Jackson 30%, Cuomo 26%, Undecided 11%
The election results were not the best, especially Biden's immediate surge. There was a worry he could siphon too many votes and Jackson wouldn't keep
winning states, and the big wins he needed on Super Tuesday would not follow through. But first there was the Wyoming caucus, which all three campaigns had
largely ignored up to this point. A debate was being organized between the three campaigns, but the Jackson team dropped out and instead kept doing what they
had been doing up to that point. Town halls, town halls, town halls. Voter registeration drives. New commercials were being produced for Super Tuesday.
Wyoming: Jackson 34%, Biden 30%, Cuomo 29%, Undecided 7%
And just like that, Jesse Jackson was then recognized as the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination. Three days away from Super Tuesday, rumors about
Cuomo starting to have doubts he ever should have run to begin with began to swirl, and the general impression amongst those in Washington, D.C. was that
Cuomo would be dropping out the race if he did not have a great showing on Super Tuesday. Jackson was confident he would not...
Indeed, Cuomo did not, winning just three states out of seventeen voting that day. Biden managed to snag four, which surprised many considering the short
amount of time he had been in the race by then. Finally, Jackson won ten states; in fact, he won all of the south. It was the next morning when Cuomo went
on live television and announced he was dropping out of the race. Yet, Jackson had not quite won, as Biden hadn't dropped out.
It was just a couple days later when the Alaska caucus was held: Jackson 63%, Biden 22%, Cuomo 3%, Undecided 12%
With such an embarrasing loss, Biden's team was finally willing to come to the table. The two candidates sat down and spoke for over four hours. It is
not known exactly what was said during that meeting, but by the end of it, Biden had made the decision to withdraw from the race. At the time it was thought
Jackson had promised him the position of vice president, but that would not come to pass.
With the field clear, Jackson and his team would enjoy the next few months, still technically campaigning. They were sure to visit every remaining state,
using the time with the voters to help convince them to vote for Jackson over Vice President Bush, who it seemed was most likely to be the Republican nominee.
They also started the search for their own vice presidential candidate, coming to a short list of: Senator Bill Bradley from New Jersey, Former Governor Martha
Layne Collins from Kentucky, Senator Joe Biden from Delaware, and Senator Bob Graham from Florida.
The campaign team took their time selecting the vice presidential candidate, ultimately boiling down to...
What are you doing here? I have absolutely no clue.
Go away! No.
The Jesse Jackson campaign, 1988
It seemed the entire nation was waiting for the announcement on whether or not Mario Cuomo, then Governor of New York, would run for the Democratic nomination
for President of the United States. It would take until February 24th, 1987, for him to address the topic at all in public. Sitting down with Walter Cronkite for
a special televised event, Cuomo announced he was, in fact, a candidate for the Democratic nomination. Immediately he was the clear frontrunner.
Gary Hart, the outgoing senator from Colorado, had himself been planning on running for the nomination, but started to seriously rethink this once Cuomo made
his announcement. He decided to feel out the rest of the field, and it became clear that there might really only be one other serious candidate: Jesse Jackson.
The two men had faced off against each other in 1984, so why couldn't they work together now to make sure Cuomo wouldn't waltz into the nomination? A meeting was
set up between them, Hart having already pubically announced he wouldn't be running in 1988.
Jackson himself was very suspicious, not knowing the intention behind Hart suggesting the meeting. The two men had both seriously campaigned in 1984, and both
indeed lost. So when Hart offered to come onto Jackson's campaign staff (which didn't really exist at this point) as chief strategist, Jackson was nearly
speechless. But, for some incredible reason, he ultimately felt compelled to accept-- but not until they had several meetings.
The first thing the pair did was convince Charles Manatt, former DNC Chairman, to join as the campaign chair. Then, the three together picked Jane Byrne,
former Mayor of Chicago (and indeed the first woman elected mayor in a major city in the United States), to be the campaign manager. James Carville and Paul
Begala then joined the campaign team, due to their successful gubernatorial election of Robert Casey of Pennsylvania in 1986. Lester Thurow was hired to head
the economic advisory panel, due to his connections to Hart from the 1972 McGovern campaign.
The entire team was shocked when Dianne Feinstein, Mayor of San Fransico, announced she was running for the Democratic nomination before Jackson had himself.
It took the political community by surprise, as no one had heard any rumors or whispers before the announcement. Jackson's team worried she would take away support
from him instead of Cuomo, but Jackson assured everyone they were going to win this time.
Finally, on July 17th, 1987, Jackson called a press conference and announced to the nation that he was indeed running for the Democratic nomination. He fielded
questions for two hours, covering topics ranging from his view of the Iran-Contra scandal to what he liked to eat for breakfast. He proved to be very well prepared,
and the national media covered the announcement in a favorable light, but he was still considered a long shot to win compared to Cuomo. Jackson went to campaigning.
The first tour the campaign would take would be in Iowa, mainly due to the fact that, so far, Cuomo had largely ignored the state. The Governor of New York
was taking the early states for granted, it was felt, because he believed he already had the election in the bag. Jackson, on the other hand, understood the
importance of Iowa and New Hampshire especially, but he and his team both recognized New Hampshire might be a lost cause, due to how much time Cuomo and Feinstein
were spending there. Cuomo had also already started campaigning in the Super Tuesday states, which Jackson knew put him at a disadvantage.
Campaigning in Iowa awakened something within Jackson, and it was sometime during that first tour that he finally decided that yes, he did indeed want to win.
After the inital tour, Jackson and the campaign team traveled to New Hampshire, the candidate having decided they must contest every election if they hoped to win.
They did town halls, breakfasts, coffees, meet and greets, and much and more. Slowly, the real money started to trickle in.
As if it was all of a sudden, they were preparing for the first televised debate between the three candidates, and they were also designing their first
commercial. Jackson had no wish to go negative, so the commercial simply showcased who he was and what he had to offer the nation. They used the commercial to
announce the core platform of his campaign: they would advance the cause of blacks, the poor, the displaced, the disenfranchised. They would institute universal
health care. They would rebuild America's infrastructure, and would end the War on Drugs and declare the War on Addiction. These would prove to be the major
issues the Jackson team would focus on throughout the rest of the campaign.
Finally at the first debate, Cuomo got a rude awakening that he would not be simply handed the nomination, he would still have to earn it. Feinstein and
Jackson found themselves agreeing and teaming up on Cuomo maybe a little too much, but the reviews were better than the Jackson team were expecting. It was said
that Cuomo looked shocked, Feinstein looked lost, and Jackson looked half-presidential. The nation expected Cuomo to come out guns blazing, but instead he
disappointed by not being able to hold off the opposing tag team pair. All the while, Jackson himself was quick to differianate himself from Feinstein.
Somehow, despite the expectations of the nation, Jackson came out of the debate looking the best out of the three.
The narrative slowly began to change, and after a few more months of campaigning and a couple more debates, Feinstein dropped out, saying she didn't believe
the electoral path made sense for her to stay in the race any longer. Both candidates vied for her endorsement, and ultimately she announced she was supporting
Jackson over Cuomo for personal reasons. It was a victory for the Jackson team no matter how she phrased it.
Almost too soon, it was election day in Iowa, with both Jackson and Cuomo in the state doing last minute campaigning. The Jackson team, particularly
campaign manager Jane Byrne, spent huge amounts of time organizing in the state and as such, everyone felt very hopeful. It was a nerve wrecking night, with
results slow to get in. Eventually it was clear: Cuomo 42%, Jackson 36%, Feinstein 7%, Undecided 15%
The massive amounts of hard work had paid off, and the narrative had really changed then. Suddenly Cuomo wasn't the heir apparent anymore, and the possibility
of having a black man represent the Democratic Party as their nominee for President of the United States seemed very, very real in a way it never had in 1984.
The Jackson team immediately claimed it as a victory, despite not outright winning. Jackson himself gave a short speech thanking the voters and volunteers of
Iowa and immediately got on a plane to head to New Hampshire.
He had been campaigning all over in the months leading up to these first primaries, but with the election in New Hampshire barely ten days away, it was
important he make his presence known there as Cuomo was spending his time in the Southern Super Tuesday states. It was on the flight that they received the news
that Senator Joe Biden of Delaware had entered the race after seeing the Iowa results and realizing Cuomo was weaker than thought. Hart was glad to hear the news,
whereas Jackson preferred only running against one other candidate. Nevertheless, it was too late for Biden to compete until the Vermont primary.
Cuomo, in a move the public perceived as a freak out, rushed back to New Hampshire and rather quickly a debate (leaving out Biden) was organized by the
two campaign teams. The Governor of New York performed well, but Jackson more than held his own and the press determined that Cuomo lost. Still, with New
Hampshire being right next door to New York, the Jackson team managed expectations. So they were happily surprised by the election night results:
Cuomo 54%, Jackson 37%, Feinstein 1%, 8% Undecided
The next states up were Minnesota and South Dakota, and under the direction of James Carville and Paul Begala, the campaign had spent considerable resources
in these states, knowing they had to make a statement in one but probably both. Jackson had secured the endorsement of George McGovern, 1972 Democratic nominee
and South Dakota native, and the team felt comfortable there. Minnesota was a true battleground between the two campaigns, and it even the polling was very, very
tight. If Jackson didn't win one of the states, he was prepared to withdraw his name from contention. He wouldn't have to...
Minnesota: Jackson 48%, Cuomo 40%, Undecided 12% and South Dakota: Jackson 52%, Cuomo 43%, Undecided 5%
The Jackson campaign team were ecstatic with the results, as now the momentum was theirs to lose. Immediately they all went and did rounds on the TV news
circuit, singing from the rooftops about their victories. Next came the Maine primary, and then the wild card named Joe Biden would start to factor in with the
Vermont primary. Biden had already started campaigning, but he was playing catch up, and Jackson knew he had to win Super Tuesday big.
Maine: Cuomo 57%, Jackson 39%, Undecided 4%
Vermont: Biden 33%, Jackson 30%, Cuomo 26%, Undecided 11%
The election results were not the best, especially Biden's immediate surge. There was a worry he could siphon too many votes and Jackson wouldn't keep
winning states, and the big wins he needed on Super Tuesday would not follow through. But first there was the Wyoming caucus, which all three campaigns had
largely ignored up to this point. A debate was being organized between the three campaigns, but the Jackson team dropped out and instead kept doing what they
had been doing up to that point. Town halls, town halls, town halls. Voter registeration drives. New commercials were being produced for Super Tuesday.
Wyoming: Jackson 34%, Biden 30%, Cuomo 29%, Undecided 7%
And just like that, Jesse Jackson was then recognized as the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination. Three days away from Super Tuesday, rumors about
Cuomo starting to have doubts he ever should have run to begin with began to swirl, and the general impression amongst those in Washington, D.C. was that
Cuomo would be dropping out the race if he did not have a great showing on Super Tuesday. Jackson was confident he would not...
Indeed, Cuomo did not, winning just three states out of seventeen voting that day. Biden managed to snag four, which surprised many considering the short
amount of time he had been in the race by then. Finally, Jackson won ten states; in fact, he won all of the south. It was the next morning when Cuomo went
on live television and announced he was dropping out of the race. Yet, Jackson had not quite won, as Biden hadn't dropped out.
It was just a couple days later when the Alaska caucus was held: Jackson 63%, Biden 22%, Cuomo 3%, Undecided 12%
With such an embarrasing loss, Biden's team was finally willing to come to the table. The two candidates sat down and spoke for over four hours. It is
not known exactly what was said during that meeting, but by the end of it, Biden had made the decision to withdraw from the race. At the time it was thought
Jackson had promised him the position of vice president, but that would not come to pass.
With the field clear, Jackson and his team would enjoy the next few months, still technically campaigning. They were sure to visit every remaining state,
using the time with the voters to help convince them to vote for Jackson over Vice President Bush, who it seemed was most likely to be the Republican nominee.
They also started the search for their own vice presidential candidate, coming to a short list of: Senator Bill Bradley from New Jersey, Former Governor Martha
Layne Collins from Kentucky, Senator Joe Biden from Delaware, and Senator Bob Graham from Florida.
The campaign team took their time selecting the vice presidential candidate, ultimately boiling down to...
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