A charismatic political strategist who spent his for-
mative years in the Deep South, Lee Atwater capital-
ized on his innate ability to understand American
cultural sensibilities and political trends in order to
become one of the foremost political strategists of
the 1980’s. Following his successes in a number of
state campaigns, including serving as the political
director for Dixiecrat-turned-Republican senator
Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, Atwater
achieved national recognition for his work as the
southern regional coordinator of Ronald Reagan’s
1980 presidential campaign. Following the Republi-
can victory in that race, President Reagan named
Atwater White House deputy political director, a
post he held for the first four years of the Reagan ad-
ministration. In 1984, following the conclusion of
President Reagan’s successful reelection campaign,
Atwater returned to the private sector, where he
merged his boutique political consulting firm with
that of the larger company of Black, Manafort, and
Stone.
Shortly after Atwater left the Reagan White
House, Vice President George H. W. Bush asked him
to manage his 1988 presidential campaign. In craft-
ing a campaign strategy for Bush and his running
mate, Indiana senator Dan Quayle, Atwater relied
on many of the strategies he had used successfully
during his earlier campaigns. Those strategies in-
cluded embracing a combination of traditional and
populist ideas and values to appeal to swing voters
who subscribed to those values. Thus, Bush and
Quayle campaigned by advocating for strong de-
fense, limited government, low taxes, and school
prayer.
Bush and Quayle were opposed in the presiden-
tial race by Democrats Michael Dukakis—the gover-
nor of Massachusetts—and his vice presidential run-
ning mate, Texas senator Lloyd Bentsen. Atwater
portrayed Dukakis and Bentsen as captives of an East
Coast liberal establishment that was out of touch
with ordinary Americans. The most notable part of
the 1988 campaign was Atwater’s tactical use of race
to depict Governor Dukakis as being weak on crime.
Atwater and his colleagues created a television com-
mercial featuring a convicted African American
murderer named William Horton. Horton had been
serving a life sentence in a Massachusetts peniten-
tiary when he was granted a weekend-long furlough
in 1986 under a controversial Massachusetts state
law. He did not return to prison at the end of the
weekend, and less than a year later, Horton raped a
woman in Maryland. Atwater’s commercial blamed
Dukakis for the furlough program and intimated
that such episodes would recur under a Dukakis
presidency.
The advertisement proved successful in frighten-
ing some voters into supporting Bush. Together with
Atwater’s other tactics, it helped the Bush-Quayle
ticket win the presidency in 1988. Following his elec-
toral victory, President Bush named Atwater chair-
man of the Republican National Committee in 1989.
Atwater became the first political consultant in the
history of either party to be named to lead a national
political organization.Impact Atwater’s approach to political campaigns
proved extremely influential. Not only was it partly82 Atwater, Lee The Eighties in America
At an October, 1988, presidential campaign rally, Lee Atwater—
George H. W. Bush’s campaign manager—holds up a sign
proclaiming his support for the candidate.(AP/Wide World
Photos)