2008 Democratic Presidential Primary

Coming off of two terms as Governor of Iowa, and a chairing role of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), Tom Vilsack's campaign for president was short-lived. Unable to raise his name recognition in a crowded field, Vilsack's campaign focused on his plan for a gradual pullout from Iraq, energy security, and reducing political partisanship. He ultimately withdrew in February 2007, before some candidates had even entered the race.

Vilsack endorsed Hillary Clinton, and went on to actively campaign for her in Iowa. He endorsed Barack Obama after Clinton withdrew. Vilsack went on to serve as Obama's Secretary of Agriculture, adopting a low-key approach to the role. He served both terms, before then actively campaigning for Hillary Clinton in 2016. He campaigned for Joe Biden in 2020, and then once again became Secretary of Agriculture, despite some opposition from within the left of the Democratic party. He is currently serving as CEO of the World Food Prize Foundation.

A Senator from Delaware for 36 years, Biden's presidential run emphasised his experience and foreign-policy knowledge, with a key focus on Biden's detailed plan to end the Iraq War. Biden had actually previously ran for President once before, in 1988, but that campaign had stumbled from the start with confused messaging and multiple plagiarism scandals. This time around, Biden registered in the polls, and got significant media attention, but was consistently weighed down by gaffes and insensitive comments. He ultimately withdrew after a poor perfomance in Iowa, with polling indicating his position would not improve.

Biden did not initially endorse after withdrawing, but ultimately endorsed Obama, who selected him as his running mate. Biden was elected Vice President alongside Obama, serving two terms with him. Despite expectations, he did not run for president in 2016, establishing a foreign policy think tank the Penn Biden Centre for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, out of the University of Pennsylvania. Biden ran for president in 2020, winning the primary and general to be elected President, serving for one term before withdrawing his campaign for re-election amid concerns about his low popularity and declining cognitive abilities. 

Edwards had been a one-term Senator from North Carolina when he decided to run as part of the 2004 presidential election, Edwards won two states - South Carolina and North Carolina, and ultimately came second to John Kerry, who selected him as his running mate, before the two ultimately lost. Having been the Democrats Vice Presidential nominee the election before and widely viewed as a future star within the party, Edwards seemed like a good bet in 2008. Running as a left-populist, Edwards campaign focused on poverty and inequality, but he consistently polled third throughout the race, always between 10-15%. After Iowa, in which Edwards beat Hillary to second, Edwards jumped up to 20%, but then came third in New Hampshire, somehow managed to secure only 4% in Nevada, and came third in South Carolina, despite winning it in 2004, resulting in his withdrawal.

Edwards endorsed Obama in mid-May while he was the clear front-runner and seemed days away from the nomination (although it wouldn't actually come til June). In late 2007, reports had begun to emerge that Edwards had cheated on his wife, who was at the time dying of cancer. These reports became more prominent as time went on, with Edwards initially denying them, but later being forced to admit they were true, then denying that he fathered a child with another women, before finally being forced to admit this was also true. Edwards narrowly avoided legal implications related to hush money he paid to try and keep the affair quiet, but his behaviour throughout the scandal, including asking an aide to pretend the lovechild was his, ruined his reputation. The scandal destroyed Edwards' marriage (his wife died of cancer before she could divorce him, but they were legally separated) and his political career. He is now co-head of a law firm that specialises in medical malpractice suits.

Gravel was a senator from Alaska for two terms from 1969 to 1981. He was known for his strong opposition to the Vietnam War, and was often described as a loose cannon, sometimes voting in ways that seemed to align himself with the Democrats' more conservative wing, despite his more left-leaning views. Gravel lost in the primary in his senate re-election after several missteps surrounding a bill that brought large chunks of Alaska into federal land. After spending several years working in the private market, Gravel became increasingly involved in direct democracy groups. In 2006, 25 years after he was last in elected office, Gravel announced his presidential candidacy. Gravel focused on promoting direct democracy, a speedy withdrawal from Iraq, as well as the USA paying reparations to Iraq for the war, universal healthcare, and an abolition of income tax, to be replaced entirely with a sales tax. Despite being the first ever candidate to go viral on the internet, Gravel's campaign struggled, barely registering in polls, and failing to make the ballot in several states. He ultimately withdrew in late March, switching party affiliation to the Libertarians.

Gravel's time in the Libertarians didn't fare much better, his economic views (especially on issues like healthcare) were massively out of line with the right-wing Libertarian Party. Gravel continued his campaign for president, but lost the nomination to former Georgia Rep. Bob Barr, coming 4th. Gravel remained politically active, endorsing Bernie Sanders in 2016, while also becoming CEO of KUSH, a marijuana company. In 2020, Gravel ran for president again, and I will cover that when I get to the 2020 elections.

Jim Gilmore served one term as Governor of Virginia from 1999 to 2003, and ran for president in 2008 after a draft campaign. Positioning himself as a conservative alternative to the three frontrunners, and emphasising national security and energy independence, Gilmore struggled to break through or majorly differentiate himself from the pack. He was hospitalised with a detached retina in mid-June 2007, and withdrew a week later, also citing his belief that he had entered the field too late to raise the proper funds to run a campaign (he entered the field a day after eventual nominee John McCain).

Gilmore endorsed McCain in early Ferbruary, at which point McCain was the clear favourite. Before this, In late 2007, Gilmore decided to run for senate in Virginia, narrowly prevailing in the primary despite criticism over his more moderate views on abortion. He lost the Senate election in a landslide to Democrat Mark Warner. Afterwards Gilmore led two think tanks, one around tax cuts, another around national security, before he ultimately ran for President a second time in 2016, something I will get to writing about eventually.

Brownback had been a Senator from Kansas since 1996, and was widely known as a major figure within the Christian Right and one of the most socially conservative members of the Senate, something that played a key role in his campaign. Brownback's other policy pledges included supporting a flat tax and a partition of Iraq. He spent most of the summer of 2007 getting into various spats with other candidates over religious issues, some of which backfired badly on the campaign. Brownback also made headlines for stating he did not believe in evolution. Brownback's campaign had grassroots support, but began to lose momentum after a lackluster result in the Iowa Straw Poll, after which fundraising quickly dried up, leading to Brownback withdrawing from the race in October.

Brownback endorsed McCain the next month, who was at the time polling in third, well behind frontrunner Guiliani. Brownback retired from the senate in 2010, instead opting to run for Governor of Kansas, coasting to election. Brownback was a controversial Governor, implementing the "Kansas Experiement", a policy of radical cuts to the state income tax in an attempt to drive growth, and openly attempting to force out several more moderate Republicans in the state house and senate. Brownback endorsed Perry for President in 2012, and then narrowly won re-election in 2014, despite a series of local Republicans endorsing his Democrat opponent, but Brownback was dealt a major defeat in 2017 when Republican state lawmakers repealed the "Kansas Experiment" policies, going as far as overriding Brownback's veto. The "Kansas Experiment" had ultimately failed to drive any growth in Kansas, while placing the state in an artificial fiscal crisis, and drove cuts to the state eduction budget so severe that most schools closed early and some shut entirely. With one of the lowest approval ratings in the country, Brownback's political career was saved when Donald Trump nominated him to be the US Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom in 2017. The nomination was heavily resisted by Democrats, but he was eventually approved for the position in 2018. Brownback's term expired when Trump lost re-election, and he now leads multiple charities that focus on religious freedom and interfaith dialogue, as well as the "National Committee for Religious Freedom", a campaign group mostly aligned with christian conservative voices. 

Duncan Hunter's campaign for president was a surprise to most people. A not particulary high-profile Representative from California, specifically in its far-south, he had been best known as Chair of the Armed Forces Committee, and was a big supporter of the Iraq War and greater military funding. Hunter was also a free-trade sceptic and made illegal immigration a major part of his campaign. Running as a conservative candidate, he was able to gain the support of media figures like Ann Coulter. Hunter was a long-shot candidate from the start, and never gained any real traction. Hunter got less than 1% in Iowa, before a solid third place in Wyoming (which did not hold a traditional primary). Hunter's campaign had invested a large amount of resources in New Hampshire, but received less than 1% of the vote there too. Hunter's campaign dragged on through three more states, never getting more than 2%, before he dropped out in mid-January.

Hunter endorsed Huckabee, who was polling second at the time. Hunter pretty much completely disappeared from the public eye after his presidential run, retiring from congress, but he succeeded was in his seat by his son, also called Duncan Hunter. Hunter Jr served for nearly nine years, becoming an early supporter of Trump, before his political career was consumed by a scandal surrounding misuse of campaign funds to cover up a series of affairs. He resigned in 2020 and was sentenced to 11 months, but was pardoned by President Trump. Hunter Sr was dragged back into the spotlight in 2023, when he was accused of using his role on the Armed Forces Committee to cover up a friendly fire incident in Iraq that Hunter Jr may have ordered.

For most of the 2008 election, it seemed like Hillary Clinton would be the Democratic nominee, and Rudy Giuliani would be the Republican. Rudy first came to prominence as Associate Attorney General in the first two years of the Reagan administration, the third highest position in the entire Justice Department. After this, Rudy moved to Attorney for the Southern District of New York, the chief prosecutor for Manhattan, the Bronx, and the six counties serving as New York City's northern outer-metropolitan area. Rudy then went on to serve as Mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001, becoming known for his tough-on-crime approach. Rudy was launched in the national picture as the Mayor of New York City during the 9/11 attacks, becoming nicknamed "The People's Mayor". Giuliani was the clear frontrunner for nominee through all of 2007, also consistently raising the most money of any Republican. Despite this, he was deeply unpopular with the more conservative wing of the party thanks to his moderate-to-liberal views on issues like abortion and LGBT+ rights. Giuliani's campaign decided to adopt a strange strategy for the primaries - ignore the earlier contests, and instead invest heavily in larger states that give more votes (and delegates) but vote later. Giuliani's star began to fade in November, when Bernard Kerik, who Giuliani had appointed Police Commissioner of New York City while Mayor, was charged with multiple crimes including tax fraud. Scandals also broke around his potential coverup of using taxpayer money on large security details as Mayor, and then around his use of taxpayer money to pay for chaffeurs and security for a woman he was having an affair with, and then his private businesses dealings with foreign governments, which included Qatari officials accused of being sympathetic to Al-Qaeda. All of this brought Giuliani level with the rest of the pack, but it wasn't as bad as Giuliani's campaign strategy. Giuliani's strategy of ignoring all of the early states led to a 4% result in Iowa, a 9% in New Hampshire, and below 5% in all of the next three. When Florida, the first of Giuliani's big states came round, it was clear that his entire campaign hinged on a win, with Giuliani at this point adrift in 5th place. He came a distant third, and subsequently withdrew.

Giuliani quickly endorsed McCain. After the election he returned to his business ventures in law and security consulting, working to pay off the crippingly large debt his presidential campaign had incurred. Giuliani eventually became an active supporter of Donald Trump's presidential run, becoming an increasingly close ally of the campaign as the 2016 election went on. Giuliani acted as a close advisor of Trump during his first year as president. Officially, Giuliani advised just on cybersecurity issues, but in reality he acted as an integral part of the administrations first year. Giuliani joined Trump's personal legal team in mid-2018, and in 2019 played a key role in the Trump-Ukraine scandal, where Giuliani and Trump were alleged to have withheld aid from Ukraine in retaliation for Ukraine refusing to investigate Trump's then political opponent, Joe Biden, for politically damaging material. The incident led to Trump's first impeachment. When Trump lost re-election, Giuliani joined Trump in alleging voter fraud took place, and allegedly attempted to force multiple swing states to overturn their results, with legal proceedings still ongoing in those cases. Giuliani lost muliple defamation cases related to his allegations of voter fraud, resulting in him unsuccessfully filing for bankruptcy. He has now been disbarred in the state of New York, and continues to face multiple legal cases against him personally.

For most of the race it seemed to feel like the "Conservative" wing were being forgotten, or just didn't have their own candidate. Enter Mike Huckabee, a former Christian media personality, Baptist pastor, and had just come off over 10 years as Governor of Arkansas. Having repeatedly won bi-partisan awards for his performance as Governor, Huckabee was an ideal candidate, except for one thing; no one knew who he was. Like Romney, Huckabee was a little-known Governor and had little of a national presence, unlike Romney, Huckabee was not wealthy, or well-connected, and was continually raising some of the lowest funds of any major candidate. Running as a christian conservative candidate, Huckabee consistently took socially conservative positions, including stating he does not believe in evolution, but also appealed to younger people with greener stances on climate change (a belief he did not stick to in the long term). Huckabee also took some more radical stances on economic issues, including supporting abolishing income tax and replacing it with a sales tax (the "FairTax" proposal"). Unfortuntately for Huckabee, his radicalism on economic issues clashed with his time as Governor, where he'd been widely seen as someone with more moderate views on fiscal policy, being given an F by the Cato Institute. Huckabee spent most of the early race near the bottom of the polls, despite strong showings in straw polls in early states. His second place finish in the Iowa Straw Poll began to give the campaign grassroots momentum, and he began to pickup speed, consistently polling 5th from October onwards, and continuing to gain momentum, pulling into second (begind only Giuliani) in December. Huckabee would have likely taken first place that month, if not for criticism from the right about his more moderate views on immigration. Huckabee came a convicing first in Iowa, and it looked for a moment like he might be the Republican Parties nominee, but then New Hampshire voted, and Huckabee came a very distant third. Huckabee then failed to win nearly every state after this and before Super Tuesday, including a close second in South Carolina and a win in Louisiana. In Super Tuesday Huckabee managed victories in 5 states, all more conservative southern states, but overall trailed Romney and McCain massively. With Romney dropping out, Huckabee managed a victory in Kansas, but lost every other contest to McCain, dropping out on March 4th when McCain won the required number of delegates.

Huckabee became a media commentator and radio show host after withdrawing. Despite being seen as the frontrunner for the Republican nomination in 2012, Huckabee ultimately did not run, instead deciding to run for President again in 2016.