Yesterday: In 1988, Bob Dole’s first run for president

Published 12:00 am Monday, February 29, 2016

A good-sized crowd mobbed Republican presidential candidate Bob Dole and his wife, Salisbury native Elizabeth Dole (right), when they flew into Charlotte for a Feb. 18, 1988, campaign appearance. That day, Dole held a press conference at the Butler Aviation hangar, then traveled to the Uptown Marriott, where he and Elizabeth Dole addressed a crowd of several hundred. Dole would not survive the primary season, unable to overcome the campaign of Vice President George Bush, the eventual GOP nominee. Bush would win the November general election and appoint Elizabeth Dole as his secretary of labor. Bob Dole would secure the GOP presidential nomination in 1996 but lose in the general election to Democratic incumbent Bill Clinton. This photograph is from the Salisbury Post’s file.