Iowa Caucus History: The Rise of the Christian Conservative Movement in 1988

The emergence of the Christian Conservative movement and Iowans' desire for change resulted in Vice President George Bush losing the 1988 Iowa Caucuses to Kansas Senator Robert Dole and televangelist-turned-politician Pat Robertson.

Baker: One of the difficulties we had in 1988 was portraying ourselves as agents of change when our candidate, George Bush the Vice President, had been Reagan's Vice President for eight years.

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Bush: Whatever it is, competing with the Japanese, whatever it is, is education.

As he said yesterday, I want to be the old George Bush, it may not be as interesting and we kind of found that here today.

Bob Dole: I've voted about 11,000 times since I've been in Congress. Oh I'd like to get rid of a few of those votes myself. But 11,000 times and a pretty consistent record.

So Senator Robert Dole and wife Elizabeth invited Barbara and Iowa Senator Charles Grassley to join the campaign.

Dole: Chuck normally stays out of primaries but in '88 he decided to support me, which is a big boost.

Charles Grassley: Those of us that are doing the endorsements say, boy we're really helping this guy. I think we have an over exaggerated opinion of our endorsement because Iowans are very independent people. I think it might influence a few people but it isn't going to make a big difference.

Dole: I guess one of us will be here, one of the three of us or four of us, we're all going to be out here working. So we've got a pretty good team.

There would not have been a farm bill had it not been for the efforts of Bob Dole. Now if you don't like that, then you're mad at me. But if you think it's a little better than what we had, just go to the caucus and say I think we have a friend of the farmer in Senator Bob Dole and that's an accurate statement.

As Bob Dole locked up the rural vote, Vice President Bush was about to be ambushed in Ames. Republican cavalcade of stars in 1987, better known as the Ames Straw Poll, was the canary in the coal mine for establishment republicans and the rise of evangelicals.

Bush: For the last seven years I've stood side-by-side with one of the greatest presidents this country has had and I'm very, very proud of that.

(applause)

We indeed are going to come once again to a time in our nation and throughout the world when the term made in America is synonymous with the very best in the world.

Pat Robertson: So the room was packed with our people and they were wearing those hats with Robertson for President on them. And I was hugging all these wonderful people and they took a vote and I didn't, I really didn't understand what they were doing, but when it was finished I had won decisively and George Bush was creamed. I mean, he really was beaten badly in those straw ballots. And the people were shocked. But I didn't, I really didn't understand what the game was, I didn't know what they were doing.

But I do remember the morning after the Straw Poll the Des Moines Register had a big cartoon and it had a picture, a cartoon picture of David and Goliath and portraying Pat Robertson as David and George H.W. Bush as Goliath, you know.

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Pat Robertson: His face was shocked. I mean, I remember just looking -- I went up and shook his hand, George we were friends, and he had that shocked look, he was horrified after that Ames Straw Poll, he couldn't believe it.

Grassley: At that particular time I never saw the dominance of evangelical Christians within the republican caucus. And now since then it has been very much demonstrated.

Mr. Pat Robertson.

(applause)

Steve Scheffler: Neil Bush, who is President H.W. Bush's, one of his sons, you know, had referred to Robertson supporters and/or organizers as cockroaches. And I was with Pat kind of behind the stage before this event, of course, he wanted to come out with both barrels and basically give the Bush campaign a piece of his mind, but more rational heads prevailed and encouraged him that that wasn't the thing he should do.

Pat Robertson: I had one little woman look at me with just hatred in her eyes and say, why don't you get out of the race? Why are you here? I mean, just vitriol. But that's politics.

I want a time in America when husbands love their wives, when wives love their husbands and when men and women together bring up law abiding, God fearing children as citizens of the greatest nation on the face of the Earth.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is about five degrees below zero with the wind chill, there are 3,000 frozen media members in downtown Des Moines and there are enough satellite dishes in this town to dial up Mars. It can only mean one thing, it's Iowa caucus night. Let's party!

Bob Dole would claim first on the republican side, but his victory was overshadowed by an evangelical awakening. Second place Pat Robertson claimed his own victory.

Robertson: I believe after this win in Iowa I'm going to be coalescing the conservatives, many of the Reagan supporters around the country will be coming over to my campaign.

Robertson: Big headlines, I mean I'm talking about banner headlines across the country. It was remarkable. Robertson beats Bush, that was the story because that meant Bush came in third and this unknown preacher beat him.

The Vice President's eldest son conceding on behalf of his father but with still a vision of optimism.

George W. Bush: And we look forward to the south, a little different environment there, a place where his loyalty with the President will be a plus.

George H.W. Bush would regain his footing, and later the presidency. When his son George W. would return for his own campaign a decade later, he would learn from Robertson's evangelical outreach and message, engaging Iowa Christian conservatives as a cornerstone of his own campaign.