The First Campaign Websites

One of the strange delights of the ephemeral web is that some sites, against all reason, seem never to die. Take, for instance, the Dole/Kemp campaign website from 1996. It’s still there, in all of its dot-com-era glory. There are the links to speeches, interactive games, and information about Dole’s policy positions. (Plus, some light trash-talk about the opponent: “Bill Clinton Wants to Put ‘Big Brother’ in Your Computer,” it says on Dole’s page about Technology and the Internet.) Bob Dole never became president. But 20 years after his campaign website appeared online, the people who designed it shared their story.