Category: People Key figures: Gary Hart (Democratic candidate), Donna Rice (model and actress), Tom Fiedler (Miami Herald politics editor), Lee Hart (Gary Hart’s wife), Michael Dukakis (eventual Democratic nominee)
On May 8, 1987, U.S. Senator Gary Hart of Colorado — the clear frontrunner for the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination, leading polls by more than 20 points — suspended his campaign, five days after the Miami Herald published a story linking him to model and actress Donna Rice. The scandal, centered on an overnight yacht trip and a stakeout of Hart’s Washington townhouse, transformed American political journalism and reshaped the 1988 presidential race.
Hart had declared his candidacy on April 13, 1987. He entered the race as the party’s presumptive nominee, widely seen as the Democrats’ strongest hope to reclaim the White House after the Reagan era. In a profile for the New York Times Magazine published May 3, Hart made an ill-fated challenge to reporters: “Follow me around … If anybody wants to put a tail on me, go ahead. They’d be very bored.” The Miami Herald had already been investigating tips about Hart’s personal life; that same weekend, Herald journalists staked out Hart’s Washington, D.C. townhouse and observed Rice — whom Hart had met at a New Year’s Eve party in Colorado — visiting overnight.
The Herald published its story on May 3, 1987, generating immediate national attention. The backstory of Hart’s relationship with Rice included an overnight cruise in late March 1987 on the 83-foot luxury yacht Monkey Business, chartered by attorney William Broadhurst, which sailed from Miami to Bimini, Bahamas. A photograph later published on the front cover of the National Enquirer (June 2, 1987) showed Rice sitting on Hart’s lap while he wore a “Monkey Business Crew” t-shirt, becoming one of the most recognizable political images of the decade.
Compounding the initial story, the Washington Post contacted Hart’s campaign with information about a separate alleged affair. Facing cascading revelations, Hart withdrew from the race on May 8, 1987, in an emotional press conference in Denver in which he criticized the intrusive nature of modern political journalism while acknowledging the costs of what he called his “mistakes.” His lead in New Hampshire polls had collapsed by half within days of the Herald story; campaign contributions dried up almost immediately.
Hart re-entered the race on December 15, 1987, with an apology to supporters and a renewed platform focused on national security. The comeback was brief: in the February 16, 1988 New Hampshire primary, he received only 4 percent of the vote and withdrew permanently. Michael Dukakis became the Democratic nominee and lost the general election to George H.W. Bush.
Hart’s withdrawal in May 1987 is widely regarded as a turning point in the relationship between American political campaigns and the news media. Prior to 1987, mainstream news organizations largely treated candidates’ private lives — including marital fidelity — as off-limits unless directly relevant to public duties. The Miami Herald’s stakeout and publication of the Hart–Rice story broke that informal boundary and established a new standard in which personal conduct was considered fair game for political reporting.
The episode intensified debate within newsrooms about the ethics of surveillance journalism and “gotcha” coverage, but the precedent held: after 1987, candidates could expect intensive press scrutiny of their personal lives. Some analysts argue the change deterred qualified candidates from seeking office, while others contend it created a more accountable framework for evaluating character. Hart himself became a recurring figure in this debate, arguing in interviews and a 2014 memoir (The Republic of Conscience) that the standard was applied selectively and unfairly.
Hart’s collapse also left the Democratic Party scrambling for a frontrunner and contributed to the 1988 nomination of Dukakis — a candidate perceived as more cautious and moderate — who ultimately ran a campaign widely criticized as ineffective against Bush’s negative advertising.