Mike and Kitty Dukakis

Photograph of Michael and Kitty Dukakis with white text on a white background.

Michael Dukakis ran as the Democratic Party's nominee for U.S. President in 1988. His presidential bid was based around the "Massachusetts Miracle," in which the Commonwealth experienced a strong economic uptick after two generations of de-industrialization and unemployment. The idea was that Dukakis could do for the nation what he had done for Massachusetts. Unfortunately for Dukakis, then U.S. Vice President George H. W. Bush painted a picture of Dukakis not as a leader but as someone who would be soft on crime and uneducated on foreign policy. To combat this image, Dukakis infamously donned a helmet and rode a ballistic-missile submarine, which gave an unintended comic effect. The America public ultimately agreed with Bush, and Dukakis lost the race by a margin of 315 electoral votes.

Katharine “Kitty” Dukakis is Michael’s wife and had a number of rumors swirling around her during the 1988 presidential race. She was accused of burning an American flag in protest of the Vietnam War, but this piece of gossip was later found to be unsubstantiated. In addition, Kitty had an ongoing battle with alcoholism and depression, and was hospitalized in 1989 for drinking rubbing alcohol. She is a proponent of electroconvulsive therapy and credits it for treating her severe depression. As a descendant of European Jews, Kitty also served on the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council.