This article lists those who were potential candidates for the Democratic nomination for Vice President of the United States in the 1988 election. Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis won the 1988 Democratic nomination for President of the United States, and chose Texas Senator Lloyd Bentsen as his running mate. Dukakis chose Bentsen in order to appeal to Southerners and in hopes of carrying Bentsen's home state of Texas.[1] The strategy failed, as the Dukakis-Bentsen ticket went on to lose Texas and all other states in the South except West Virginia. The choice of Bentsen caused some backlash from Jesse Jackson, who had wanted to be chosen as the vice presidential nominee, and progressives such as Ralph Nader.[2] Paul Brountas, a longtime Dukakis aide, led the search for Dukakis's running mate.[1] The Dukakis–Bentsen ticket ultimately lost to the Bush–Quayle ticket in the general election.
Coincidental to the presidential election, Bentsen simultaneously re-elected to the fourth term as Senator, and easily won, despite the Dukakis-Bentsen ticket's double-digit loss in Texas. At the convention, Dukakis openly cast the ticket as a 1960-style pairing—“another man from Massachusetts” joined with a Texan—prompting contemporaneous press to liken it to the Kennedy-Johnson “Boston-Austin” alliance.[3][4]
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