US Presidential Campaigns have a long history of being rocked by sex scandals. One of the major scandals to have troubled the Democrats was the Donna Rice affair. In January 1987, Gary Hart was the clear frontrunner for the Democratic nomination in the U.S. 1988 presidential election. He had the experience of a strong showing in the 1984 presidential election and had developed his campaign thereafter. Hart officially declared his candidacy on April 13, 1987.

 Rumors began circulating immediately regarding Hart was having an extramarital affair. Hart dared the press and said that anybody was tailing him was wasting his time. Two reporters of Miami had watched an attractive woman coming out of his Washington, D.C. townhouse. On May 3 the story was published in the Miami Herald. The Miami Herald reporter identified the woman as Donna Rice. Later the Herald obtained photographs of the sexy model sitting on his lap on board of a luxury yatch called. Monkey Business. The photographs were later published in the National Enquirer. A week after the story broke out Gary Hart dropped out of the race. In a media conference he said that he had bent down but was not broken.