The 1988 presidential campaign of Al Gore, U.S. Senator of Tennessee and former House Representative began on April 11, 1987. He campaigned for President of the United States as a Democratic candidate in the 1988 presidential election, against Democratic candidates Joe Biden, Dick Gephardt, Paul Simon, Jesse Jackson, and Michael Dukakis (who eventually won the Democratic nomination).
Age 39 at the time, Gore was described as the first serious young presidential candidate since John F. Kennedy in 1960. He was characterized as a political centrist aligned with many other Southern Democrats.
Gore was further described by The New York Times as: